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2013-03-01

ALTAY Main Battle Tank to be Turkey’s Pride

The first prototypes of Turkey’s first national main battle tank ALTAY which is designed and developed by OTOKAR has been introduced. Realized with an investment of about 500 million USD, the ALTAY Project is planned for mass production in 2015.

Otokar, the biggest privately owned company of the Turkish Defence Industry, is the prime contractor of the Altay which is Turkey’s very first national main battle tank. The company is the exclusively responsible party to Turkish Defence Industry Undersecretary (SSM) regarding the design, development, integration, prototype production, testing, qualification of the first Turkish National Main Battle Tank (ALTAY Tank) and all activities contained in the Project. Otokar launched the first prototypes of ALTAY at OTOKAR facilities on November 15th, 2012.

Where does the name Altay come from?

ALTAY Main Battle Tank is named after Turkish General Fahrettin ALTAY, the commander of the V. Cavalry Corps who achieved great success during the Turkish War of Independence between 1919 and 1922.

Design

The design of ALTAY has been realized in order to fulfil all kinds of operational requirements derived from the technical and tactical demands of the Turkish Armed Forces. In this scope, ALTAY has been equipped with the latest technologies that are used in the modern tanks. With its superior fire power and hit rate, high mobility and survivability features, it’s anticipated that ALTAY will be one of the fundamental and deterrent assets of the Turkish Armed Forces.

Intellectual Property Rights

Developed by its prime contractor OTOKAR, and designed in line with Turkish Army’s requirements; ALTAY will cater for exact requirements of the Turkish Army. Turkish Republic will own all design and intellectual property rights of ALTAY. The Technical Data Package of ALTAY that includes all information and documents related to the design, development, integration, testing and manufacturing will be in the basis of the mass production of the tank, and all its rights will belong to the Turkish Republic.

Armament

The main armament of ALTAY is a 120 mm 55 calibre smoothbore gun suitable for various kinds of rounds. A new generation fire control system has been specially designed for ALTAY in order to control the main and secondary armaments. By means of this system, ALTAY is also able to shoot moving targets with a very high first round hit probability. Besides, ALTAY tank is equipped with modular composite armours in order to protect the tank against all kinds of threats, and subsystems that enable the crew to proceed in environments that are under Chemical, Biological, Radioactive and Nuclear (CBRN) threats.

When evaluated under the topics of Survivability, Fire Power, Mobility, Command Control and Communication, Integrated Logistic Support and Ergonomics, ALTAY becomes prominent as an optimized tank that is compatible to mission, threat and environment conditions, meeting the requirements of the user at maximum level, with a flexibility enabling its use in all kinds of battle environments with its additional features adaptable to various missions.

Crew

ALTAY’s crew consists of four personnel as a tank commander, gunner, driver and loader. In order to provide the tank with the intended performance in rough terrains, it’s equipped with a 1500 horsepower high-tech engine and transmission. The main armament of ALTAY is a 120 mm 55 calibre smoothbore gun suitable for various kinds of rounds. A new generation fire control system has been specially designed for ALTAY in order to control the main and secondary armaments. By means of this system, ALTAY is also able to shoot moving targets with a very high first round hit probability. Besides, ALTAY tank is equipped with modular composite armours in order to protect the tank against all kinds of threats, and subsystems that enable the crew to proceed in environments that are under Chemical, Biological, Radioactive and Nuclear (CBRN) threats.

The History of Altay Project

2005: The Undersecretariat of Defence Industries assigned a consortium consisting of three companies to realize the feasibility study in order to determine the production model of the Battle Tank Project. As of April 27th 2005 the feasibility study was finalized, and the model of the project was determined as “the main battle tank to be designed and developed within the country and with technical support from abroad in required areas”.

On February 8th 2005, the Request for Proposal prepared according to the model determined due to the feasibility was delivered to the companies, including OTOKAR that participated in the feasibility study.

2007: Due to the decision taken at the meeting of the Defence Industry Executive Committee realized on March 30th 2007, for the Modern Tank Manufacturing with National Facilities Project initiated in order to meet the Modern Main Battle Tank requirement of the Land Forces Command, it was decided to start contract negotiations with OTOKAR as the prime contractor candidate.

July 29th 2008: Following the finalization of the contract negotiations about the design of Turkey’s first National Tank, development of prototypes, testing and qualification of prototypes, the contract was signed with the participation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It was aimed to use domestic sub-systems to maximum extend for the project except the areas determined due to the model. In addition to OTOKAR being assigned as the prime contractor for the Project, Aselsan was assigned to design and manufacture the prototypes of electronic sub-systems like Tank Fire Control System and Tank C3I System; MKE was assigned to manufacture the 120 mm 55 calibre Main Armament by technology transfer from Hyundai Rotem of South Korea; and Roketsan was assigned to develop the Modular Armour Package by technology transfer also through Hyundai Rotem.

January 2009: After signing contracts with the main sub-system suppliers, Project kick-off was made for the “design, development, manufacturing, testing and qualification of ALTAY prototypes”. The Project duration for the “Design and Prototype Production” of ALTAY was determined as 78.5 months. This part of the Project was arranged in three stages consisting of Conceptual Design, Detailed Design, and Prototype Production and Qualification.

May 2011: OTOKAR finalized the Conceptual Design Stage, as the first stage.

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