Altay Tank - The New Beast on the block!

bengalraider

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Ladies and Gentlemen i give you the monster from Turkey, the Anatolian gladiator , the First Middle eastern Modern heavy Armor.
ALTAY









Altay tank project moves Turkey up a league in defense

15 November 2012 / AYDIN ALBAYRAK , SAKARYA
A new defense industry project to produce high-tech military tanks moves Turkey up to the ranks of a select group of nations that have the ability to design and manufacture combat tanks, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan said on Thursday during the introduction of the prototype of Altay, the country's first main battle tank which will be produced by the end of 2015.


Speaking at a ceremony held to introduce the tank models manufactured by Otokar at the company's facilities in Sakarya province on Thursday, ErdoÄŸan said, "If we remember the difficulties we faced in the past 100 years, from the War of Independence to World War I, the significance of the Altay tanks will be better understood."

Examining the combat vehicles, Erdoğan climbed on board one of the prototypes named Kaya, accompanied by Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel.

"I sincerely greet you all and want to express how proud I am to participate in such a ceremony that has such a significant meaning for our country, nation and defense industry," ErdoÄŸan said in his speech. He thanked the Defense Ministry, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM) and Koç Holding's Otokar.

He recalled that the signing ceremony for Altay had been held on July 29, 2008, in what he called a "historic step" for Turkey's national defense industry. "We are all now witnessing the realization of that signature, of that decision we made on that day," he said.

ErdoÄŸan said the Altay tank project will increase Turkey's international prestige and move Turkey up a league in the global defense industry.

Expressing satisfaction that Altay's production would be completed one or two years ahead of schedule, ErdoÄŸan said, "We plan for Altay to enter into service in the army as soon as possible."

Altay, which is a prestigious project for Turkey, will also enable the country to locally produce high-tech components, while rendering Turkey one of the few countries in the world capable of producing its own battle tank, for which Turkey holds all the property rights.

Production of the first prototype of Turkey's first national main battle tank represents a major success in Turkey's efforts to meet the needs of the TSK locally. The Altay tanks, the serial production of which is expected to start in 2015, will be the most modern tank in the 60-ton category in the world. Thanks to its new-generation fire-control system, which was specifically developed for Altay, the tank will be able to strike even moving targets with a very high precision. In the first batch, 250 tanks are to be produced for the Turkish army.

Under the Altay tank project launched by the SSM, Otokar is working with nearly a 100 local subcontractors -- including two Turkish defense industry giants, Aselsan and Roketsan, and with South Korea's Hyundai Rotem, which provides the know-how for some crucial parts of the tank such as the 120 millimeter 55 caliber gun and the armor.

Under the project, which began in 2008, Aselsan will be producing the new-generation fire-control system and the command and control information system of the tank, while, with technology transfer from Rotem, the Turkish Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) will develop the 120 millimeter gun, and Roketsan, the modular armor of the tank.

The tank will not only be highly protected against attacks thanks to its modular composite armor, but it will also be equipped with systems providing protection for its four occupants against chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear attacks. The first prototype of the tank has undergone tests for maneuvering capabilities while a second one will undergo firing tests in a couple of months. Otokar is due to produce two other prototypes next year, following which the production stage will begin. A total of $500 million has been assigned for the tank's design, qualification, testing and production of prototypes.

At the beginning, Germany's MTU will provide the diesel engine for Turkey's first national tank, but subsequently an engine developed by the SSM will be used in Altay, which is named after Gen. Fahrettin Altay who commanded the 5th Cavalry Corps in the Turkish War of Independence.

Also at the introduction ceremony was Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz.
Coming back to the real world the tank looks good and is pretty much a Turkish analogue to the 2A6 Leo , my fears rest around the close cooperation between the Turks and the Pakistanis. This beast may soon enter our theatre as well.
 
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W.G.Ewald

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Speaking at a ceremony held to introduce the tank models manufactured by Otokar at the company's facilities in Sakarya province on Thursday, ErdoÄŸan said, "If we remember the difficulties we faced in the past 100 years, from the War of Independence to World War I, the significance of the Altay tanks will be better understood."
The table at this link has links to Turkish tanks from Renault FT-17 to US M-60. Very Interesting.

Historical Weapons of Turkish Armed Forces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

JBH22

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Even Turks can build tanks these days :scared2:

If only we could see the Arjun tank becoming a success that would have been great, we should rope in more external designers to weed out all trouble.
 

bengalraider

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The table at this link has links to Turkish tanks from Renault FT-17 to US M-60. Very Interesting.

Historical Weapons of Turkish Armed Forces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Most interesting to note that the Turks have used both Nazi and Allied armor. The ALTAY has the potential to change power dynamics in the Mideast if the Turks sell it to their neighbours and build a block against Israeli armor superiority in the region. the ALTAY is probably one of the few tanks there that can stand up to a Merkava!
 

Kunal Biswas

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There is no trouble with external its all internal..

Even Turks can build tanks these days :scared2:

If only we could see the Arjun tank becoming a success that would have been great, we should rope in more external designers to weed out all trouble.
 

Kunal Biswas

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Yeah nice, tank..

And in future is at top list in Pakistan Army..
 

drkrn

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why doesn't drdo make such presentations for its products:sad:
at least they should out-source the advertising to experienced ones

off topic: can tanks fire laser guided shells?
 

bengalraider

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The Turks did not build this tank from scratch. They borrowed a lot from the South Koreans' K2 MBT.
Yes the Turks have longstanding defence cooperation with the Koreans the ALTAY team has gained valuable input from the K2 teams experience but the design is completely new and not based on the K2 except for the basics , as for Turkish -korena cooperation even the Firtina SPG is based on the Korean K9 Thunder
 
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LurkerBaba

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why doesn't drdo make such presentations for its products:sad:
at least they should out-source the advertising to experienced ones
Yeah, the production quality of the promo videos is extremely high ! Can't expect something of that level from DRDO
 

asianobserve

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I think the chassis, suspension of Altay is K2, the turret is not.
 

Damian

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Some components of Altay are from K2, like suspension, hull and turret structures are completely new.

Hull is modeled more after M60 and in very limited way after M1, and turret is modeled after Leopard 2.

So Altay can be called in humorous way a bastard child of K2, Leopard 2, M60 and M1. ;)
 

Akim

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Its export potential depends on the price. Nobody of you, will not buy a car Renault, assembled in Turkey, at a cost of the original.
 

methos

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Coming back to the real world the tank looks good and is pretty much a Turkish analogue to the 2A6 Leo
I think that's pretty much it. The Altay seems from capabilites etc. pretty much to be a Turkish Leopard 2A6 pendant... that's all. The Altay production will however start more than a dozen years after the Leopard 2A6 entered service. What's the reason behind the Altay except doing something on their own (which increases costs)? How should the Altay stand a chance on export market (if it does only offer capabilities already introduced in other tanks years ago)?
I don't want to say "The Altay is a bad tank", because that wouldn't be true. But the Altay is not better than other already existing tanks which are proven and less expensive.
One could argue that the Altay is better because it has increased roof armour - but that can be found also in other tanks (like Strv 122, Merkava IV, T-84 & T-90, etc.) already existing/in service. One could argue that the Altay is better because it has a laser warner, IFF, etc. - but again everything can be found in other tanks already in existance/service. And that makes the Altay project a bad programme.
The FCS is made by Aselsan, who also developed an upgraded FCS for the Leopard 2 which isn't better than that of the 2A5... since the new upgrade was proposed parallel to the Altay development it could be that the Altay has the same level of FCS as NATO tanks had beginning in 1995.

I don't think that the existence of this tank is really "justified". For example look at the four "biggest" NATO countries - USA, Germany, France and the UK - all have tanks designed differently. The Challenger 2 was designed around the L30 tank gun (which was ironically fielded to have commonality in armament with the Challenger 1, which never was upgunned). Because of the gun, it was designed with different ammunition storage and thus a completely different internal layout than the other tanks and it is incompatible with other designs (you cannot put a 120 mm smoothbore gun into it). The Leclerc's design is "dominated" by the autoloader, the M1's design is "dominated" by the idea of putting nearly all rounds into the turret rear. The Altay however doesn't have anything unique in it's design (at least as far as the images and videos show). Considering the fact that the Turkey evaluated numerous tanks - including all of the above - but still doesn't design something different, it seems that the main reason for creating the Altay is to make a tank on their own. And since we are here in Defenceforumindia.com: That's also the only reason why the Arjun was made.

One thing is also that in other forums and one various websites people claim that the Turkish armed forces want to have 1,000 or even 1,200 Altay tanks - which is realistically far above the Turkish needs! With just 700 modern tanks the Turkey would be capable to beat each of it's neighbours... considering that the Turkey has 350 Leopard 2s (and plans to upgrade these) and 170 relatively modern M60T (from 2007, but they suffer from being based upon an outdated design) that would leave the need for 180 modern MBTs (assumed that all older models will be phased out). The Turkish armed forces are (like the Greece) stuck in a Cold War mentality which was abandoned by most other countries.
 

Akim

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IThe Turkish armed forces are (like the Greece) stuck in a Cold War mentality which was abandoned by most other countries.
Turkey has a lot of restless neighbors. Besides her conflict with Greek Union. And Greece, most militaristic country, is in a region, to that has quite good tank forces. If Americans them will pass to 400 М1, a disbalance will turn out. Turkey will not be able by means of the imported tanks to provide an equilibrium. "Altay" good tank for this region.
 

methos

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Greece is not interested in the 400 M1A1 according to Greek news websites (would be very contra-productive, thinking of their finances). They have 170 Leopard 2A6HEL and 183 Leopard 2A4, the rest of their tanks is outdated and/or obsolete. Turkey has 170 M60T and 348 Leopard 2A4 (with proposed modernization)... the Turkish armoured forces are in the better situation, especially if they modernize the Leopard 2s. The introduction of a single batch of Altays (250 tanks according to wiki) would be more than enough for their needs.
 

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