These will be acquired
at 4 lots of 250 each, and not all may be needed (depending on the regional
military-political situation).
Turkish armored vehicles maker Otokar could sell hundreds of its third-generation
tank, the Altay.
Otokar designed and is producing prototypes of the Altay in a deal to
sell four 250-unit batches to the Turkish military.
But Turkey could face competition. France has proposed replacing Saudi
Arabia’s AMX-30s
with its main battle tank Leclerc.
The Otokar official said the 65-ton Altay
better meets the Saudi requirement than does the 55-ton Leclerc.
The Altay
is the future third generation main battle tank (MBT) for the Turkish
army. The first prototypes of Turkey’s main battle tank ALTAY
designed and developed by OTOKAR,
the biggest privately owned company of the Turkish Defence Industry
was unveiled at OTOKAR facilities in Sakarya on November 15th, 2012.
Ait IDEF 2013, defence exhibition in Turkey which was held in May of
this year, The Turkish Company Otokar has displayed the second prototype
of ALTAY
Turkish-made main battle tank. Regarding the project Mr. Gorguc said:
“Altay project comprises two separate phases: ‘design, prototype
and qualification process and ‘series production’.
The Altay
is armed with a 120 mm smoothbore gun and will be protected against
chemical, biological and radioactive attacks. The tank can run at a
maximum road speed of 70 km/h, thanks to a 1,800 hp (1,300 kW) engine
(the first two batches will have 1,500 hp engines), and the MBTs will
be able to cross a river of 4.1 meters deep.
The tank will benefit both from indigenously developed systems and from
the armor technology of the South Korean K2 Black Panther, thanks to
the agreement signed with South Korea.
