Free Republic

Turkey has ordered another nine Italian A129 helicopter gunships, but only if they can be delivered within two years. This is in addition to 51 A129s (called T129s for the Turkish version) already on order, which will be delivered after 2012. This is all because Turkey is in desperate need of more helicopter gunships. They have found this type of aircraft particularly useful against Kurdish separatists (the PKK) operating in southeastern Turkey. Currently, Turkey relies on a fleet of about two dozen elderly American AH-1 gunships, which are being worn out because of intense operations against the PKK. For most...

Turkey has acted to address its urgent need for more attack helicopters and is looking at a possible interim deal to bridge the gap until the availability of its delayed Airbus Military A400M transports. To fill the first requirement, Turkey's Undersecretary of Defence Industries (SSM) has decided to buy nine secondhand AgustaWestland A129s from the Italian army. The Turkish army has an active fleet of 28 Bell AH-1s in the P, S and W variants, as listed by Flightglobal's HeliCAS database. It mainly uses the aircraft in the south-east of Turkey against PKK militants, but urgently needs to replace the...

(Picture) Randall Price works at the site of his expedition in Turkey If Noah’s Ark has been sitting on a mountain somewhere in the Middle East for a few millennia, a few more months of waiting are a small price to pay, at least for Randall Price. Price, who heads Liberty University’s Center For Judaic Studies, talked in January about his planned two-season expedition into Turkey, with the hopes of finding the Biblical artifact. He arrived in Turkey over the summer. But Price said since then, he’s faced pressure from a political group in Turkey that is forcing him...