Riyadh: The Saudi army requested from Turkey to engage in a tender for the production of attack helicopters for the Royal Saudi Air Force, said the Turkish newspaper, Sabah, on Thursday.
The newspaper reported that Turkish officials entered into negotiations with their Saudi counterparts about the aircraft "T -129", which conducted its first test flight last month.
Its production is expected to start in a large numbers in middle of next year, but the newspaper did not mention the source of the information.
The Turkish T-129 helicopter was originally an upgraded version of the Italian helicopter A-129. Turkey signed a $3.2 million dollar agreement with Italy to purchase the rights to manufacture these helicopters.
T -129, which is made entirely in Turkey, features high combat technology with Turkish-made navigation and targeting devices instead of Italian.