Turkey is in talks with South Korea on the Altai tank program»
Ankara plans to solve the problem with engines, transmission and armor for its national tank program "Altai" through cooperation with South Korean companies. Earlier, Turkey wanted to cooperate with Germany and France, but the damaged relations between the allies put the purchase of necessary parts in question.
Turkey is in talks with a South Korean company to actually save its Altai tank program, the development of which is accompanied by production delays, defense News writes.
The new Turkish tank was named after army General Fahrettin Altay (1880-1974), who commanded the 5th cavalry corps during the 1919-1923 Turkish war of independence.
- an employee of the purchasing Department in Turkey told Defense News.
In 2019, the office of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan included the Altai tank in the list of weapons and military equipment samples in 2020 in a government document. In a speech in October 2019, Etchem Sanjak, a senior shareholder in the Turkish-Qatari company BMC, the Altai manufacturer, said that the tank will be put into service within 24 months.
However, it is already clear that this forecast was overly optimistic. The investment program of the office of the President until 2021, released earlier this month, does not even mention the Altai itself, let alone the tank's entry into service.
According to a source familiar with the Altai program, BMC was in talks with Hyundai Rotem to address concerns about the lack of foreign technology for the tank, which Turkish officials often portray as entirely national.
The South Korean company has previously built public transport systems in Ankara and Adana, the Bosphorus crossing in Istanbul, and light rail systems in Istanbul and Izmir.
A Defense News source said that BMC, through Hyundai Rotem, is in indirect talks with two other South Korean concerns in the field of defense technologies: engine manufacturer Doosan and s&T Dynamics, which deals with automatic transmissions.
The first 100 K2 Black Panther units were built with a 1,500-horsepower Doosan engine and An s&T Dynamics automatic transmission. Under the second contract, tanks began to be delivered at the end of 2016. But after The s&T Dynamics transmission failed durability tests, the South Korean defense procurement program Office announced that the second batch will have a "hybrid" powertrain consisting of a locally developed engine and a German RENK transmission.
Earlier, Turkey hoped to install a German MTU engine and RENK transmission on the Altai ,but negotiations with manufacturers over the past couple of years have not been successful due to the Federal arms embargo on Turkey. Germany is one of a number of European governments that have restricted exports to Turkey due to Ankara's involvement in the Syrian civil war.
A similar problem applies to the alleged armor for the "Altai". Turkey had hoped that French armor technology would still be available after the initial batch of 40 units. But recent political tensions between the two countries over Turkish hydrocarbon exploration off the coast of Cyprus have put that plan in jeopardy.
A source familiar with the Altai program said the armor will now be produced locally as part of a public-private partnership.
The Altai program started in the mid-1990s, but it wasn't until November 2018 that the Turkish government awarded BMC a multibillion-dollar contract to launch the tank in series. In the tender, the Navy company won the Otokar company, which has already produced four prototypes of the Altai under a state contract.
The contract provides for the production of an initial batch of 250 units, material and technical support for the life cycle, as well as the creation by the contractor of a technological center for tank systems and ensuring their operation. In the future, under the contract, BMC will design, develop and manufacture a tank with an unmanned fire control device.
The contract States that the first tank "Altai" should come off the Assembly line within 18 months. Opposition parties in the Turkish Parliament have blamed the government for numerous delays in mass production, but procurement officials say the 18-month deadline will apply after production of the first tank begins.
The Altai program is divided into two phases: T1 and T2. T1 covers the first 250 units, and T2 - an improved version of the tank.
The deal caused a political outcry, especially after the Erdogan administration leased a military-owned tank and tower factory on the sea of Marmara to BMC for free for 25 years.
The move prompted accusations of nepotism, as the BMC shareholder at the time was a high-ranking member of Erdogan's justice and development Party.
Independent Turkish defense analyst Ozgur Eksi questioned the decision to allocate a marine plant for the production of tanks. "In the event of war, the Altai tank factory can become an easy target for enemy fire," he said.
"From the very beginning, the Turks did not plan to independently cope with the task of creating a main battle tank and invited the South Korean Hyundai Rotem, known primarily for the K2 Black Panther tank, for technical support. On a par with Rotem, Turkish gunsmiths considered the German KMW, but the demand to fully transfer the Leopard 2 technology was rejected by the Germans, "he told the Newspaper.Ru " Director Of the center for analysis of strategies and technologies Ruslan Pukhov.
Difficulties in the creation of the tank "Altay" is largely an objective character, said the expert. The main Turkish problem is the complete lack of experience in tank construction. For example, Turkish engineers do not have a power plant of their own design. Initially, it was supposed to install a German MTU Friedrichshafen turbodiesel with a capacity of 1500 HP on the Altai, but Berlin made it clear that there might be problems with the supply of this engine due to sanctions. The transmission of the Turkish tank, by the way, is also imported-German RENK. And with its supplies, too, there may be questions.
As a result, the contract for the development of the power plant and transmission in February 2018 was given to the Turkish-Qatari Navy company. The engine is planned to be created with a capacity of 1800 HP with minimal involvement of imported components. This should give the 60-ton car acceptable dynamics within a maximum of 70 km/h. It is the issue of the power plant and transmission that is the main one, which is why Altai is so late to the BMC Assembly line by the middle of 2018.
According to Pukhov, despite the fact that the Turkish "Altai" is positioned as a "tank of the future", it is, in fact, an analog of existing third-generation tanks. There is nothing promising or breakthrough in this combat vehicle. Neither the gun, nor the protection systems, nor the power plant meet modern and promising requirements for armored vehicles. However, as soon as the Turks solve the problem with power plants, "Altai" will gradually replace the Leopard and M60 tanks in the Turkish armored forces and, quite possibly, will be exported.
Mikhail Khodarenok