Produced under the MELTEM-III Project, the first ATR-72/600 (tail number TCB 751) Turkish Maritime Patrol Aircraft (TMPA) was sent to Italy in 2016 for certification tests after its structural modifications were completed at TUSAŞ facilities, and arrived in early March 2019 to carry out the final tests before its delivery. The first ATR-72/600 TMPA successfully passed certification tests and landed at Turkish Aerospace’s facilities in Kahramankazan, Ankara and will be delivered to the Naval Forces Command in the coming days after the final tests are completed.

In this article, we will first examine the MELTEM-III Project and then share information about the technical characteristics and capabilities of the ATR-72/600 Maritime Patrol Aircraft. In the last part of our article, we will briefly introduce the P-72A M/P Aircraft, which is also based on the ATR-72/600 platform and is still flown by the Italian Air Force.