Turkey’s first national main battle tank, The ALTAY Project, is under way under prime contractor Koc Group‘s Otokar.
The estimated budget for design, prototype production, tests and qualification of the ALTAY Tank, which will provide new technologies and skills to the Turkish defense industry, amounts to $500 million, Murad Bayar, undersecretary for the Defence Industries of Turkey (SSM), said at the Aug. 1 contract signing ceremony.
Design studies for ALTAY tank will be done under Otokar, and the project aims to be complete in 78.5 months.
The first seven years of the Project will comprise prototype production and testing. After that, serial production will start for the first 250 tanks, Bayar said.
Otokar will work with subcontractors, but is exclusively responsible to SSM for the design, development, integration, prototype production, testing, qualification of the tank and all project activities.
Aselsan will design and develop sub-systems including but not limited to the fire control system, command control communication information system. Otokar and Aselsan will collaborate on conducting integration studies.
For certain areas, technical support and assistance shall be obtained from Hyundai-Rotem, Korea; and certain sub-systems of Korean origin shall be provided through Hyundai-Rotem.
Makine ve Kimya Endustrisi Kurumu (MKE) will produce the 120mm 55 caliber Main Gun System. Otokar and MKE will integrate it into the tank.
Roketsan will design, develop and produce the Modular Armor Package. Otokar and Roketsan will do integration into the tank.
Bayar said at the ceremony that the first studies on a modern tank project began in 1996, targeted on a production under license of an existing tank. But that project was terminated in 2004 because of high costs.
In 2001,General Dynamics [GD], Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, France’s GIAT Industries, and Ukraine’s Kharkov Design Bureau all were interested in providing new tanks to Turkey (Defense Daily, Feb. 9, 2001).
The Turkish National Main Battle Tank Project began in 2005 and in 2007 Otokar was chosen as the ALTAY Tank prime contractor.
All intellectual and ownership rights of the ALTAY tank belong to Turkey.
The Technical Data Package, with all the information and documents related with the design, development, integration, test and production of the ALTAY Tank will be “owned by the Republic of Turkey, without any restriction and with all rights pertaining there to,” the statement said.
Other companies will join the ALTAY team at later stages in the project.
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and other top government officials joined Mustafa Koc, chairman of the Koc Holding Defence Industry and other Koc and Otokar officials at the ceremony.
Additionally, the Republic of Korea’s Minister of National Defence Sanghee Lee attended. South Korea will provide technical support and assistance for the ALTAY Project and the upper management representatives of Aselsan, Hyundai-Rotem, MKE and Roketsan also attended.
Kudret Onen, president of Koc Holding Defence Industry and Other Automotive Group and Chairman of Otokar, said, “We pride ourselves on being charged for such a large-scale national project of strategic importance.”
For 21 years, Otokar has been in the defense industry producing some 25,000 military vehicles for the forces of more than 15 countries, and primarily the Turkish armed forces, and United Nations units in several regions of the world, he said.
Mustafa Koc, chairman of Koc Holding, said: “It is certain that this project will bring enormous acceleration to the land platform development and production field of the defence industry. In order to become a leader in its region, Turkey requires stable government, growing economy and strong armed forces. Considering the prevailing threats and contemporary battle area conditions, it becomes evident that modern equipment, tools and devices which of hi-tech products and capable to dispose of potential threats must be available further to manpower in order to have contemporary and strong armed forces. We have to develop its own resources and capabilities and to develop our own technology also in this field. Only in this way we can cope with the modern era and attain sustainable growth in the national industry.”
Koc Group, which reported $39.5 billion in consolidated revenues in 2007 and $10.3 billion in the first quarter of 2008, is Turkey’s largest industrial and services group, with leading positions in four core sectors that offer strong growth potential: energy, consumer durables, automotive and finance.