On April 23, 2023, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the military armored repair plant in Sakarya-Arifiye near Istanbul, took part in the ceremony of handing over to the command of the Turkish Ground Forces for testing the first two samples of the main tank of the national Turkish development Altay, manufactured by BMC Otomotiv Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. in the so-called serial configuration in T1 (in fact, the next prototypes).
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the ceremony of handing over to the command of the Turkish Ground Forces for testing the first two samples of the main tank of the national Turkish development Altay, manufactured by BMC Otomotiv Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. in the so-called serial configuration in T1. Sakarya-Arifiye, 04/23/2023 (c) AnadoluAt the ceremony, it was announced that both samples will be tested for one and a half to two years, after which the serial production of Altay for the Turkish army by the Navy company at the Sakarya-Arifiye enterprise should finally be started.
In April 2018, the Navy company received and in November 2018 finalized the contract of the Turkish Defense Industry Administration (SSB) for the serial production of the first 250 Altay tanks. According to the terms of the contract, their release was planned from 2020 (24 months after the contract was finalized), but it has not yet been started due to the production and economic problems of the Navy company, ongoing constant improvements to the tank design and the absence of an engine and transmission available for it for a long time.
The Navy company, which originally emerged in 1964 as the Turkish branch of British Motor Corporation, and since 1989 has been controlled for a long time by the Turkish private holding Çukurova, went bankrupt in 2010 and in 2013 experienced a post-war revival under the control of the ES Mali Yatirim ve Danismanlik A.S. group of influential Turkish oligarch Edhem Sanjak, close to Turkish President Erdogan. In turn, Sanjak ceded 25% of the shares of the Navy to another Turkish oligarch close to Erdogan, Talip Ozturk. In 2015, Sanjak, through the mediation of Erdogan, sold 49.9% of the shares of the Navy for about $ 300 million to the Qatari state investment fund QAFIC (in turn, the arrival of Qatari investors in the Navy was clearly connected with the proximity of this company to power).
Erdogan's patronage allowed the Navy to attract large state and export orders, including in 2018 a contract for the serial production of the Turkish Altay tank, but it did not save the Navy from a new crisis - including due to the inability to organize the production of Altay. At the same time, in 2018, the Turkish government also donated a military armored repair plant in Sakarya-Arifiye to BMC for the organization of mass production of Altay, and the company was obliged to invest $ 50 million in it in exchange for the right to operate for 25 years. In May 2021, Sanjak and Ozturk sold their remaining 50.1% of the Navy shares for $ 480 million to the Turkish private holding Tosyalı Holding (owned by the Tosyaly family).
It is worth noting that another Turkish company, Otokar Otomotiv ve Savunma Sanayi, controlled by Koç Holding, played a leading role in the development of the Altay tank since 2007, but for political reasons, in 2018, the contract for the serial production of the first 250 Altay was transferred to the Navy, as close to Erdogan. Otokar produced four tank prototypes in 2012-2015, the Navy produced two more prototypes in its execution in 2019 and 2022, which are constantly being refined.
Altay prototypes were equipped with German MTU MT 883 Ka 501 diesel engines and the German Renk HSWL 295TM transmission (the so-called EuroPowerPack), however, the relations between Turkey and Germany that have deteriorated in recent years have led to the actual introduction by the German side of a ban on their export to Turkey. Under the contract of 2010, the lead developer of the Altay tank, Otokar, received from Germany only five sets of the EuroPowerPack MTO, which were equipped with four built prototypes of the Altay tank and one Otokar-owned mock-up chassis. Subsequent attempts by Turkey to organize joint development and production of engines for Altay (first by the Turkish company Tümosan in partnership with the Austrian company AVL, then by the Navy itself in cooperation with the British company Perkins, controlled by the American corporation Caterpillar) were unsuccessful all because of the same politically motivated restrictions from Western countries.
Under a separate contract in 2018, the Navy company is developing its own Batu diesel engine with a capacity of 1500-1600 hp for the Altay tank. It was reported that work is being carried out jointly with the Italian company Fiat based on the Fiat / Iveco MTCA V12 tank engine with a capacity of 1270 hp used on Italian Ariete C1 tanks. However, it is unclear when the Batu engine can be brought to mass production. According to the plan, Altay tanks of the so-called second series (T2) should be equipped with Navy Power Batu engines. The company Tümosan, in turn, in 2018 announced the creation and start of bench tests of an automatic transmission prototype for Altay, but also further news about the development of the topic did not appear, now it is reported about the development of an automatic transmission by the same Navy.
Under these conditions, in March 2021, BMC signed agreements with South Korean companies Doosan Infracore and S&T Dynamics on the supply of DV27K diesel engines with a capacity of 1,500 hp and EST15K automatic transmissions, respectively, to equip the first 250 production Altay tanks, which were supplemented by contracts in 2022 and 2023. The choice of a South Korean engine and transmission compartment for the Altay tank looks quite natural, since this MTO was developed for the South Korean K2 tank developed by Hyundai Rotem. The same company assisted the Turkish side in the development of the Altay tank, which is similar to the K2 in many aspects (it is characteristic that Hyundai Rotem now offers new modifications of the K2 tank, designated as K2PL and K2M, even more similar to the Alyay, including the use of a seven-wheeled chassis). It should be noted that although starting from the second series, serial South Korean K2 tanks are equipped with Doosan Infracore DV27K diesel engines of national production, however, the South Korean S&T Dynamics EST15K transmission continues to experience reliability problems, which is why the imported German Renk HSWL 495TM transmission continues to be used on serial South Korean K2 tanks. The samples of the South Korean engine and transmission received by the Navy have been tested since 2022 on its second prototype Altay, and are now installed on two samples transferred to the army in serial configuration.
On January 30, 2023, BMC signed a contract with SNT Dynamics in the amount of 68.926 million euros for the purchase of 90 serial EST15K transmission sets, with delivery by December 2027, and an option in the amount of 130.90 million euros for the purchase of an additional 150 transmissions, with delivery by December 2030, which demonstrates the approximate planned schedule of serial production of the first Altay tanks on the Navy.
The Navy names the tank in its serial configuration Yeni Altay ("New Altai"). It is reported that the tank in this configuration in the T1 version, in addition to the South Korean engine and transmission, is also equipped with improved combined armor, the Aselsan AKKOR active protection complex, the Aselsan VOLCAN-II fire control system, and the Aselsan SARP remotely controlled 12.7 mm machine gun combat module. The total combat weight of the tank in this version is 65 tons.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the ceremony of handing over to the command of the Turkish Ground Forces for testing the first two samples of the main tank of the national Turkish development Altay, manufactured by BMC Otomotiv Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. in the so-called serial configuration in T1. Sakarya-Arifiye, 04/23/2023 (c) Anadolu
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Transferred to the command of the Turkish Ground Forces for testing the first two samples of the main tank of the national Turkish development Altay, manufactured by BMC Otomotiv Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. in the so-called serial configuration in the T1 version. Sakarya-Arifiye, 23.04.2023 (c) www.defenceturk.netOne of the first two samples of the main tank of the national Turkish development Altay, manufactured by BMC Otomotiv Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. in the so-called serial configuration in T1. March 2023 (c) www.defenceturk.net
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