TUSAŞ Delivers First T625 GÖKBEY Helicopter to Turkish National Police
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) delivered the first T625 GÖKBEY multirole helicopter to Turkey’s General Directorate of Security (Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü, EGM) on 2 September 2026. The handover took place at TUSAŞ’s Kahramankazan facility near Ankara, making the national police force the third public agency to add GÖKBEY to its fleet. Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi, Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) chief Haluk Görgün, Director General of Security Ali Fidan and TUSAŞ General Manager Mehmet Demiroğlu attended the ceremony.
Çiftçi said a total of 18 T625 GÖKBEY helicopters are planned for the police force, with deliveries running through 2026-2027. Görgün told the ceremony that TUSAŞ’s domestic helicopter programmes, GÖKBEY included, have already displaced more than $8 billion in direct imports, and that the wider economic contribution — including through-life sustainment costs — exceeds $35 billion.
What is GÖKBEY?
The T625 GÖKBEY is a fully indigenous, twin-engine multirole helicopter with a maximum take-off weight above 6 tonnes, designed by TUSAŞ to continue flying after a one-engine-inoperative (OEI) event. It became Turkey’s first domestically developed helicopter to receive civil type certification from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, opening the platform to both military and civil operators.
Why this delivery matters
The handover to the national police is the clearest sign yet that GÖKBEY has moved into serial production and multi-customer service. The programme’s first delivery went to the Gendarmerie General Command in October 2024, followed by the Turkish Land Forces Command on 30 April 2026. With the police now flying GÖKBEY, the type is operational across three separate government agencies, underlining its adaptability to law-enforcement, search-and-rescue, border-security and disaster-response roles — a versatility Western law-enforcement operators typically cover with a mix of imported types such as the Airbus H145 or Bell 429.
Director General of Security Ali Fidan said at the ceremony that “with 18 GÖKBEY helicopters, we are extending our reach in the sky.” EGM’s aviation department currently operates 35 helicopters, 5 fixed-wing aircraft and 19 tactical UAVs; the phased arrival of GÖKBEY is intended to raise the share of domestically produced platforms in that fleet. TUSAŞ is also running pilot and technician conversion training for police personnel — six pilots and four technicians have reportedly completed GÖKBEY certification training so far.
Timeline: GÖKBEY’s expanding user base
- October 2024: First T625 GÖKBEY delivered to the Gendarmerie General Command’s Aviation Command.
- 30 April 2026: Turkish Land Forces Command receives its first GÖKBEY units.
- 2 September 2026: General Directorate of Security takes delivery of its first GÖKBEY at TUSAŞ’s Kahramankazan facility, the start of an 18-unit order.
Alongside this expanding customer base, TUSAŞ and SSB are working under a contract signed at IDEF 2025 for 57 additional T625 GÖKBEY General Purpose Helicopters with a domestic engine configuration, with deliveries targeted for 2028-2031.
Technical specifications
- Manufacturer: TUSAŞ (Turkish Aerospace Industries)
- Class: Twin-engine, multirole general-purpose helicopter
- Maximum take-off weight: above 6 tonnes
- Safety architecture: one-engine-inoperative (OEI) continued-flight capability
- Certification: first domestic Turkish helicopter with civil type certification
- Mission set: personnel transport, search-and-rescue, law-enforcement patrol, border security, disaster response, medical evacuation
Export and industrial-cooperation angle
GÖKBEY’s international track runs on a separate but related timeline. Earlier in 2026, at the World Defense Show in Riyadh, TUSAŞ signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Investment and the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) covering local co-production of GÖKBEY, with volumes to be set according to Saudi military and civil demand. A growing domestic reference fleet — now spanning the Gendarmerie, the Army and the police — strengthens TUSAŞ’s hand in those co-production talks by demonstrating operational maturity across multiple mission profiles.
The delivery to Turkey’s national police marks a new stage for the GÖKBEY programme, both in production tempo and customer diversity. TUSAŞ is expected to firm up the delivery schedule for the remaining 17 police helicopters in the coming months.
