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. Held with the participation of Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN, the “ALTAY FIRST PROTOTYPE”
ceremony was hosted by Mustafa V. Koc, Chairman of Koc Holding. General
Necdet OZEL, Chief of General Staff; Ismet YILMAZ, Minister of Defence;
General Hayri KIVRIKOGLU, Commander of the Turkish Land Forces; Murad
BAYAR, Defence Industry Undersecretary; Kudret ONEN, Head of Koc Holding
Defence Industry Group and Chairman of the Board of OTOKAR; Halil UNVER,
Vice Chairman of OTOKAR and Serdar GORGUC, OTOKAR General Manager attended
the ceremony. The first ALTAY prototype had already covered more than
2.000 kilometers during tests up to now. Two prototypes exhibited a
special show to the guests of the ceremony at the tank test track of
OTOKAR. Including mobility performance like acceleration, maximum speed,
side slope, suspension, stabilization track and off-road drive, this
show made the impression that, when finished, ALTAY would be the most
modern tank in the world. The Turkish Company Aselsan was assigned to
design and manufacture the prototypes of electronic sub-systems like
Tank Fire Control System and Tank C3I System. The ALTAY tank will be
ready for mass production by 2015.
The main
armament of ALTAY is a 120 mm 55 caliber smoothbore gun suitable
for various kinds of rounds. The Turkish Company MKE was assigned
to manufacture the 120 mm 55 caliber Main Armament by technology
transfer from Hyundai Rotem of South Korea. ALTAY is also
able to shoot moving targets with a very high first round
hit probability. A 7.62 mm caliber machine gun is mounted
coaxially to the left of the main armament. A remote controlled
weapon station is mounted on the top of the turret which can
be armed with a 7.62mm or 12.7mm caliber machine gun. A range
of eight smoke grenade dischargers are mounted to each rear
top side of the turret.
Design
and Protection
The
design of ALTAY has been realized in order to fulfill all kinds
of operational requirements derived from the technical and tactical
demands of the Turkish Armed Forces. In this scope, ALTAY has
been equipped with the latest technologies that are used in
the modern tanks. With its superior fire power and hit rate,
high mobility and survivability features, it’s anticipated
that ALTAY will be one of the fundamental and deterrent assets
of the Turkish Armed Forces. ALTAY’s crew consists of
four personnel as a tank commander, gunner, driver and loader.
The driver is seated at the center front of the hull and is
provided with a single-piece hatch cover that opens to the right.
The turret is in the center of the vehicle with the commander
and gunner on the right and the loader on the left. The powerpack
is mounted at the rear of the hull. ALTAY tank is equipped with
modular composite armours in order to protect the tank against
all kinds of threats. The Turkish Company Roketsan was assigned
to develop the Modular Armour Package by technology transfer
also through Hyundai Rotem. Roketsan has the responsibility
of design and development of ALYAY Turkish main battle tank
Armor System. Roketsan has established a completely new ballistic
protection infrastructure which has up-to-date design, production
and test technologies brought together for light and heavy armoured
vehicle protection solutions.
Propulsion
In order
to provide the tank with the intended performance in rough
terrains, it’s equipped with a 1,500 horsepower high-tech
engine and Renk transmission. The suspension consists each
side of seven dual rubber-tyred roadwheels with the idler
at the front, the drive sprocket at the rear. The ALTAY can
run at a maximum road speed of 70 km. The vehicle can cross
a depths of 4.1m in water.
Accessories
A
new generation fire control system has been specially designed
for ALTAY in order to control the main and secondary armaments.
The Altay is equipped CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive
and Nuclear) protection system. Standard equipment on the Altay
includes C3I (Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence)
system, battlefield target identification system, life support
system, auxiliary power unit, fire-extinguishing and explosion
suppression system and 360 degrees situational awareness system.at
the rear.
Kyodo
news says the Japanese defense ministry is considering permanently deploying
Patriot
surface-to-air defense missile interceptors at its Tokyo
headquarters.
