Turkish army to receive indigenous "New Altay" tanks next month

BMC General Manager Murat Yalcintash has announced that the Altay main battle tank produced by BMC Defense, which they called the “New Altay”, will be delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces on April 23, 2023.

Speaking at the BMC Defense press conference held on March 22, BMC General Manager Yalcintash made important statements regarding the Altay main battle tank and the company’s activities, Bulgarian Defense writes.

Yalcintash’s statements reveal important news. For example, serial production activities under the Altay main battle tank project, which was officially launched on July 29, 2008, could not start for some time due to the embargo of Germany’s power group. This year, BMC will supply the Turkish Armed Forces with Altay tanks manufactured by power groups supplied from South Korea.

Altay will be delivered in April 2023

BMC won the tender for serial production of the Altay tank developed by Otokar in 2018. So far, 5 Altay tanks have been produced at BMC. Two more main battle tanks are currently being prepared for delivery. These two tanks, which are integrated with the power group supplied by South Korea, are scheduled to be delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces on April 23, 2023.

According to the statement of the general manager of BMC, these two tanks are starting a long-term test program. These field tests, which will be carried out with the participation of the Turkish Armed Forces, the Defense Industry Presidency, and BMC representatives, are expected to take 1.5 to 2 years. The company aims to start mass production of Altay with Korean Power Group in 2025.

Why “New Altay”?

As mentioned above, BMC christens the tanks currently in production in the BVS as the “New Altay”. Mehmet Karaaslan, who has been with the Altay project since Otokar’s tenure, explains the reason for this name as follows: “The tank we have now is not an old tank. This is a completely new configuration. In recent years, we have had the chance to locate and fix many problems. There were many battles, many lessons learned from them, and many changes to the tank as a result.”

On the other hand, Karaaslan stated that the Altay tank was not produced solely by BMC, but many people put great efforts into the program to reach this stage, which has been reached for more than 20 years.