The United States stopped Turkey supplying 30 locally made attack helicopters to Pakistan, Turkish Presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said.
During a briefing, Kalin noted that the US blocked Turkey's helicopter sale to Pakistan, which will likely lead to Islamabad buying it from China and cause more detriment to Washington down the line.
The ATAK-12 is a twin-engine, tandem seat, multi-role, all-weather attack helicopter based on the Agusta A129 Mangusta platform and is equipped with American engines. The US is holding up export clearance for the LHTEC engine.
Turkey and Pakistan signed a $1.5 billion deal for the Turkish-made helicopter gunships in July 2018. But the delivery date was pushed back after the Pentagon refused to issue the Turkish company an export licence for the engines.
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