Turkey to conduct field tests with its local-made Altay tank fitted with Turkish powerpack.

According to the President of the Turkish Defense Association (SSB) Ismail Demir, Turkey will conduct field tests in April 2021, with its local-made Altay Main Battle Tank (MBT) fitted with the powerpack developed by the Turkish company BMC under the BATU Project.
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The latest prototype of the Turkish-made main battle tank was unveiled by the company BMC during the IDEF defense exhibition in May 2019. (Picture source Army Recognition)

The new powerpack consists of a 12-cylinder V-type water-cooled Diesel engine developing 1.500 hp and 4600 Nm of torque coupled to a U connection cross-drive transmission with steering and braking functionality. It integrates cooling packs, air filtration, and exhaust systems.

The project of the new Turkish-made main battle tank Altay started in 2007 initiated by the Turkish company Otokar. In November 2012, the first prototype of the new tank was unveiled at the OTOKAR facilities in Sakarya. In April 2018, it was announced that the Turkish Company BMC, a manufacturer of wheeled armored and tactical vehicles, has won the contract to continue the development and production of the indigenous MBT.

In November 2018, BMC has officially received a contract from SSB (Turkish Defense Industry Association) to produce the local-made Altay tank, with the first order of 250 units which could go up to 1,000 tanks.

The Altay design is conventional with the driver position at the front, the turret in the middle, and the powerpack at the rear. The tank features the latest technologies of protection including a modular armor package developed by the Turkish company Roketsan which can withstand all types of modern anti-tank guided missile and RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade).

The Altay tank is armed with a 120mm L/55 smoothbore gun manufactured by the Turkish Company MKE by technology transfer from Hyundai Rotem of South Korea. The second armament includes one 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and one remotely operated weapon station that can be armed with one 7.62 or 12.7mm machine gun.