Current status
T929 ATAK II is Turkish Aerospace’s heavy combat helicopter programme, formally described by the company as the Multirole Heavy Combat Helicopter. It builds on the experience accumulated through T129 ATAK and T625 GÖKBEY.
The aircraft has moved beyond paper design. Turkish Aerospace’s 2024 corporate product material records a maiden flight on 28 April 2023. The company’s current product page states that development efforts are continuing and publishes an MTOW of approximately 11,000 kg, two-pilot crew and an ammunition capacity objective of 1,200 kg excluding launchers.
The current page describes a heavy attack helicopter designed for hot-and-high and adverse-weather operations, with modern avionics, high weapon capacity and survivability-oriented features. It lists a maximum speed of 175 KIAS, 255 nm range and more than 2.5 hours endurance as current manufacturer-published performance data.
As with T925, propulsion remains an important programme dependency. Turkish Aerospace’s current page lists two Motor Sich TV3-117VMA-SBM1V turboshaft engines. SSB’s gas-turbine roadmap separately identifies a 2,500–3,500 shp turboshaft development or localisation objective for heavy attack and 10-ton utility helicopters. The current imported engine and the future domestic/localised powerplant path must therefore be treated as separate facts.
SSB’s sector strategy describes the Heavy Class Attack Helicopter programme as an effort to develop a high-payload helicopter with advanced targeting, electronic warfare, navigation, communications and weapons systems. As of 22 August 2026, Defence Agenda should describe the programme as active development and flight testing, not as an operationally fielded platform.
Why it matters
T929 is Türkiye’s attempt to move from the lighter T129 class into the highest-weight attack-helicopter segment.
That requires a step change not only in airframe mass but also in drivetrain power, rotor technology, weapon load, survivability, sensors, electronic warfare, mission computing and hot-and-high performance.
The programme can also act as a technology anchor for T925. SSB has explicitly linked the need for a future 2,500–3,500 shp turboshaft to both the 10-ton utility and heavy attack helicopter classes, making propulsion one of the clearest cross-programme dependencies.
For Defence Agenda, this means T929 should be tracked through flight-test maturity, production configuration and engine strategy, not only through weapons displayed on mock-ups or prototype aircraft.