Turkey to develop local-made Batu engine for Altay Main Battle Tank MBT
According to a new published by the Daily Sabah website on January 11, 2021, the Turkish defense industry will develop the first prototype of the Batu tank engine that will be mounted on the Turkish-made Main Battle Tank (MBT) Altay. The project of Altay was launched by the Turkish company Otokar.
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New Turkish-made Main Battle Tank Altay at a military parade in Turkey. (Picture source Twitter Bumfuzzle)
The project of the new Turkish-made main battle tank Altay was initiated with an agreement signed between the Turkish company Otokar and the Turkish Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSB now) on March 2007, when the Defense Industries Executive Committee awarded a contract worth approximately $500 million to Otokar for the design, development, and production of four prototypes of a national main battle tank.
In October 2010, Otokar signed a contract with German companies MTU and Renk for the supply of powerpack, but in 2018 the delivery of engine components was affected by the German federal arms embargo on Turkey due to their involvement in the Syrian Civil War. Due to the situation, Turkey has launched the idea to produce its own powerpack to motorize the Altay MBT (Main Battle Tank).
In May 2011, the mock-up of the Altay MBT was introduced to the public in IDEF2011 and the first prototypes were delivered to the Turkish armed forces in November 2016. In November 2018, the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) inked a contract with domestic armored vehicle manufacturer BMC for the mass production of the Altay MBT.
The Batu is a Powerpack developed by the Turkish company BMC including a Diesel engine and an automatic transmission. BMC signed a contract on the ALTAY MBT Power Pack with the SSB (Turkish Defense Association) on June 13, 2018.
BMC has launched the development of a new engine with a power capacity of 1,600 hp in collaboration with the Italian manufacturer Fiat/Iveco that will be used to motorize the new main battle tank Altay. The engine that BMC will utilize in the ALTAY MBT will feature a turbocharger for the higher power requirement.
The main armament of the Altay MBT consists of one 120 mm 55 caliber smoothbore gun manufactured by Turkish Company MKE via a technology transfer contract with Hyundai Rotem of South Korea.
The Turkish Company Roketsan was assigned to develop the Modular Armour Package by technology transfer also through Hyundai Rotem. Roketsan has the responsibility of the design and development of ALTAY Turkish main battle tank Armor System. Roketsan has established a completely new ballistic protection infrastructure that has up-to-date design, production, and test technologies brought together for light and heavy armored vehicle protection solutions.
