Turkish Navy Completes Acceptance Tests for Third ATR-72 Maritime Patrol Aircraft

Turkey’s Ministry of Defense announced Friday that the Navy’s third ATR-72 (P-72) anti-submarine warfare (ASW) patrol aircraft completed acceptance tests.

The third P-72 maritime patrol aircraft was handed over to the Navy in early May.

MELTEM-3 Project

In mid-2021, Alenia Aermacchi signed an agreement with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) for modification of six ATR 72 aircraft into ATR 72-600 ASW TMPA (Turkish Maritime Patrol Aircraft) configuration. The work to convert the “green” ATR 72-600 in ATR 72-600TMPA will be performed by TAI. The aircraft are being under the Meltem III programme.

It is a special version of the ATR 72 turboprop regional aircraft made by the French-Italian ATR joint venture (Alenia Aermacchi/EADS).

The first aircraft was expected to be delivered in February 2017. It was handed over to the Navy in December 2020.

The ATR 72TMPA is the Turkish Navy version of the ATR 72ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) aircraft with competitive acquisition and operational costs.

The ATR 72-600TMPA plane is integrated with Thales AMASCOS mission system and will include new functionalities such as AIS, Link 16 and the last generation weapon systems, like the Mk 54 Light Weight Torpedo.

The AMASCOS (Airborne Maritime Situation & Control System) mission system relies on multiple sensors to detect, identify and track threats, maintain real-time tactical situation awareness, manage NATO and national tactical data links and deploy onboard weapon systems.