Press
Turkey reportedly wants to start series production of its “national” Altay battle tank. However, this seems to be difficult at the moment.
Ankara – Turkey is said to have started serial production of the first battle tank manufactured in the country, the “Altay”. This was confirmed by the director of the state-owned Turkish defense industry, Haluk Görgun. “There are countries that want to cooperate with us internationally and we are continuing our negotiations with them,” the state broadcaster quoted TRT.
Görgün promises the latest technology in the Altay. “Digital technologies are increasingly being integrated into the Altay, which enables more precise and faster detection, targeting and combat of enemy elements.” The tank is to be produced by the company BMC.
Altay is not a “national” tank of Türkiye
However, there are doubts as to whether the Altay is actually a “national” tank. “The Altay is a modified version of the Korean K2 (Black Panther) tank. The Altay has one more crew member and one more axle,” says security expert Özge Kilinc in an interview with fr.de from IPPEN.MEDIA. “Practically only the software is Turkish. The transmission and engine are from Germany for the time being, although Turkey is hoping for a solution with a Korean 1500 hp diesel engine from South Korea. The problem with technology transfer from the German transmission manufacturer Renk still remains. As a result, the Altay’s cannons, engine, transmission and armor cannot be described as ‘Made in Turkey’, but at most an ‘assembly product with a Turkish fire control system from Aselsan’, a Turkish defense company.”
It is also not clear where in Turkey the tank will be produced. “Turkey does not have any corresponding production facilities for tanks. There is only a facility for assembling and modernizing tanks. So finished components will come from Korea and then be assembled in Turkey,” said Kilinc.
BMC overwhelmed with construction of Altay
The Altay reveals the corruption within Turkey and its defense industry. In November 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave his then AKP board colleague Ethem Sancak, a co-owner of the Turkish-Qatari company BMC, the order to mass-produce the future Altay battle tank and also to develop an engine for it, according to an article by the Berlin Information Center for Transatlantic Security – BITS. It soon became apparent that Turkey would need a very long time before it could produce an Altay.
Without technology from Germany it is not possible
Even the Korean K2 cannot do without technology from Germany. South Korea had to equip the first 100 units with MTU engines and Renk transmissions due to a lack of national alternatives, according to the BITS article. Even today, the Koreans do not seem to have got the problem under control and therefore must continue to rely on German technology.
“National” weapons systems not very national
For Erdogan, the “national” Altay tank is just as important as the national fighter aircraft “Kaan”. With these prestige projects, Erdogan can score points, especially among his nationalist supporters. In April 2023, the Altay was “handed over” to the Turkish armed forces for testing purposes. At the ceremony, the Turkish president praised the tank highly. The Altay is a tank “beyond the third generation”.
The Kaan is also being sold as a national prestige project. In reality, it is an aircraft with F-16 engines and European technology that will take a long time to reach series production. The Altay is also not particularly national at the moment. It therefore remains questionable whether series production can actually begin in Turkey. (erpe)
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