Altay / The Turkish-Built Main Battle Tank That Wants to Conquer the World

Altay. Turkey. Altay is the official name of the Turkish future main battle tank. It is named after the famous commander of the Turkish Cavalry Corps. It is Turkey's first indigenous MBT development program since 1943. In 2007 a contract was awarded to a local company Otokar for the design and production of four prototypes. First prototype was publicly revealed in 2011. These prototypes were used for testing. In 2016 it was officially reported that Turkey is ready for production of this new tank. The contract was planned to be signed in 2018 for a total of 251 Altay tanks in three main variants. Production was planned to begin in 2021. Though there were major difficulties related to engine and transmission of the new tank. Deliveries of first production Altay tanks are planned to begin in 2023. This new main battle tank is of conventional design. The Altay uses some technologies of the South Korean K2 Black Panther, however it is a different design, rather than a license-produced version of the Black Panther. The Altay also has some design features of the Leopard 2, which is used by the Turkish Armed Forces. The Altay main battle tank is planned to have a 120mm-L55 smoothbore gun. It is a version of the rain metal gun. Similar guns are used on the German Leopard 2A6 and 2A7 tanks, as well as on the South Korean Black Panther tank. Around 40 rounds of ammunition are carried for the Ready-to-use ammunition is stored in the turret bustle, fitted with blowout panels, while remaining rounds are stored inside the hull. The tank is fitted with coaxial 7.62mm machine gun, roof-mounted 7.62mm machine gun and roof-mounted remotely controlled weapon station, armed with a 12.7mm machine gun. The Altay MBT is equipped with a state-of-the-art Vulcan fire control system and battlefield management system, indigenously developed by ASELSAN. This company supplies fire control systems to the Turkish Army-upgraded Leopard 1 MBTs. The Altay has a target acquisition system with hunter-killer engagement capability. Vehicle commander uses a panoramic sight with thermal vision to search for targets. Once the target is selected the gun is laid on the target automatically and the gunner completes all the aiming and firing process. During that time commander looks for the next target. Such engagement method is present on all modern main battle tanks. This new main battle tank is operated by a crew of four, including commander, gunner, loader and driver. Prototypes of the Altay MBTs were powered by a German MTUMT-883K501 turbocharged diesel engine, developing 1,500 horsepower, mated to a rank automatic transmission. This German engine was optimized for tropical and desert conditions. However due to political issues Germany refuses to sell this engine Turkey. It was claimed that production tanks will be powered by an indigenous engine, developing a whopping 1,800 horsepower. However the Turkish industry failed to develop an indigenous engine for this tank. There were speculations that the Altay could be powered by a Ukrainian 6TD3 diesel engine, developing 1,500 horsepower. In 2021 a contract was signed with Doosan Infracore and S&T Dynamics of South Korea to supply DV-27K engines and EST-15K transmissions to Turkey for the Altay. This engine and transmission were developed for the South Korean K2 Black Panther tank. Interestingly South Korean prototypes of the K2 tank had issues with their EST-15K transmissions due to reliability issues. As a result South Korea ordered German rank transmissions for their production tanks. Series production of Altay tanks with South Korean engines could begin in 2022. Planned maximum road speed is set at 70 km per hour. This main battle tank will be fitted with a deep wading kit. After preparation it will be capable of fording water obstacles up to 4.1 meters deep.