I stated it multiple times, these helicopters in police hands are because of the lessons learned in July '16. There is no police force in the world that operates dedicated attack helicopters but Turkey. Turkey is a first in the world and even attack helicopters for its paramilitary force is quite unique or also a first. This diversification of heavy firepower is not because of some cumbersome bureaucracy that would prevent one state agency from making use of it by lending it from another agency, but IMO because of the coup.
We have even witnessed that the forestry service is operating the TB2. I wouldn't be surprised if these serve a secondary (or covert primary) role in suppressing a military coup, should one happen.
The stated reasons by others that these ATAKs in police hands will be used against PKK is laughable. The TSK is more than capable to handle that and doesn't need another agency actively involved in its rotary wing actions.
Other roles I can ascribe to these police ATAKs are armed escort for high value people during high threat situations, escort of nuclear fuel transports in the future and rapid reaction force against attacks on high value sites such as nuclear power plants.
Turkey has faced numerous internal threats before, like the ISIS bombings. ISIS used modern vehicles to disguise and explode high-value targets, right at the capital of Turkey. If police had a capable and flexible helicopter like Atak in those days, they could have tracked and eliminated such threats. Think of how fast an Atak can react to such a threat. These things are built for lightning operations. An Atak could instantaneously get ready for the operation. Since it is manned, it can be operated faster than a drone. Using its long-range on-board camera, the operator could find a bomber among the traffic faster than city cameras or drones and then, perhaps in a million-to-one scenario, shoot the damn thing before it explodes itself
These could be stationed in all major cities as part of the police force. They could also assist with anti-terrorist operations in border towns where the police has a higher jurisdiction than the gendarmerie. Police helicopters are easy targets for the terrorists. Meanwhile Atak is a war machine.
And to top it all off, these things are Made in Turkey. A single Bell 429, which is the helicopter model used by the police force, costs about more than 6 million dollars. According to news articles, we’ve sold Atak helicopters to Pakistan at 50 million dollars per unit. That number probably includes all the missiles and weaponry required for the Pakistani army as well. So, if a single unit production cost can come down to about 10-15 million dollars, it would be a much better purchase because we are basically taking money from our left pocket and putting it into the other. Additionally, these are probably cheaper to maintain. You don’t have to wait for parts and you don’t have to brace for possible sanctions.
