Problems of serial production of the Altai tank
During a meeting of the Turkish parliamentary committee, where financial reports of state-owned companies were discussed, it once again became clear that no progress has been made in the production of the Altay main battle tank, known as the "first national battle tank".
The Altay project is Turkey's first main battle tank (MBT) development program, which includes electronic control systems and a 120 mm cannon and armor. All of them will be manufactured by Turkish defense contractors. But practice has shown that the Altay MBT project faced critical technological problems that affected the timing of its production.
Turkish Deputy Defense Minister Muhsin Dere, a participant in a meeting on the work of the State Military Plant (ASFAT), answered questions from officials who criticized the government for delaying the implementation of the project. Dere stated that the German company that supplied the power system for the prototype engine, previously produced by the private Turkish company Otokar, stopped deliveries when the project reached the stage of mass production. Noting that efforts to produce a local engine and transmission in Turkey are continuing, the deputy minister said that they are also negotiating to buy them from South Korea. Dere said: "However, at the moment we don't have an engine and transmission system. That's why there is no tank." By the way, negotiations with South Korea have been going on for more than a year, and so far there is no definite result.
Mukhsin Dere also said that the prototype of the Altay second-generation MBT was manufactured at the tank and pallet production plant in Sakarya with a power system previously purchased in Germany, adding that it had successfully passed operational tests. In other words, the national tank has no drawbacks, except for the engine and transmission.
At the same time, the Turkish military official "forgot" that the power system is also German. Roughly speaking, the national tank is by and large a kind of lego constructor made of foreign components. And this moment is generally characteristic of the entire military-industrial complex of Turkey – including the vaunted Bayraktar TB2 UAVs, which some Russian political scientists for some reason extol, claiming that Turkey will soon become self-sufficient in this regard.
There is every reason to believe that it will not. It is for the reason that there is no corresponding engineering school and the necessary production facilities in Turkey. And another proof of this is Ankara's insistence on lifting the arms embargo from Turkey by the countries of the collective West.
Last year, Turkey announced that it had started production of a tank engine with a capacity of 1,500 hp, videos with this engine were presented to the press. But experts emphasize that it will take a lot of time to create a transfer of engine power to the tank. The Turkish company BMC, the main contractor of the project, is currently negotiating with the South Korean engine manufacturer Hyundai Doosan Infracore and S& T Dynamics, which produce automatic transmissions.
In May, Ismail Demir, head of the Defense Industry Department, said that tests of the power system supplied from South Korea for the Altay MBT are continuing. He told Turkish media that if the tests are successful, mass production will begin. However, according to him, the ultimate goal is to install a domestic analog on the tank. Military experts say that Turkey can start mass production after solving this problem. But the uncertainty faced by BMC, the lack of funds and allegations of corruption make it much more difficult to achieve this goal.
In 2017, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected the offer of Otokar, which had already produced a prototype and was ready for mass production. Nevertheless, Erdogan signed a contract with another company owned by a businessman from his inner circle, which caused a lot of controversy about nepotism.
It is no secret that there have been serious delays in the project due to the undeclared embargo imposed by the German government in response to Turkey's military intervention in Syria in recent years. While the Turkish government engaged in intensive diplomacy to convince the Germans, negotiations with South Korean companies were initiated as an alternative.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar explained in December 2021 that the German company Rheinmetall would not participate in the project. After a meeting with German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in February 2021 in Berlin, he also argued that the best solution for the project would be to use German technologies: "Altay was developed based on a German engine. Finding an alternative engine from another country and integrating it into a tank is not an easy task. The design of the tank needs to be changed. Therefore, the most appropriate solution would be to purchase a German power grid."
Turkey also refused to buy Ukrainian 6TD-3 tank engines with a capacity of 1400 hp, which were offered by the Malyshev Kharkiv Plant. Turkish specialists were not satisfied that at the time of the negotiations there was only a mock–up of the engine - a modification of the unit for tanks that were developed in the 1990s.
According to the tactical and technical task for the Altay MBT from 2018, it was expected that the first tank would come off the assembly line within 18 months and be delivered to the Ground Forces of the Turkish Armed Forces by BMC. The contract included serial production and life cycle logistics for 250 units.
After signing the Altay contract with BMC in 2018, opposition parties accused the government of supporting a Turkish-Qatari joint venture owned by Turkish businessman Etem Sanjak, a former member of the Executive Council of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), as well as the Ozturk family, distant relatives of President Erdogan. Qatar owns 49.9% of BMC's shares, while Sanjak owns 25% and the Ozturk family owns 25.1%.
President Erdogan has announced several times that mass production of Altay MBT will begin in the near future, indicating various dates. Visiting the BMC factory on July 2, 2021, Erdogan said he had spoken with software engineers and received a promise that production could begin in 2023. However, the problems with the tank are primarily related to the engine and transmission, not to the software.
Thus, the Turkish tank program has faced serious delays due to the unavailability of critical technologies. It is noteworthy that South Korea encountered similar problems during the serial production of its K2 Black Panther ("Black Panther"). And its entry into service was also postponed due to problems with the engine and transmission.
Vasily Ivanov
Vasily Ivanovich Ivanov is a journalist.
