Turkish-made main battle tank project ALTAY from OTOKAR will be complete by the end of 2015 2703123

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Defense News - Turkey

 
 
Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 05:25 PM
 
Turkish-made main battle tank project ALTAY from OTOKAR will be complete by the end of 2015.

Turkey’s Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry has disclosed a new five-year strategic plan, which finalizes completion dates for key projects including Turkish-made ALTAY main battle tanks, aircraft, satellites, destroyers, and helicopters, in a bid to lift the country’s defense industry into a higher league.

     
Altay, the Turkish-made main battle tank project, will be complete by the end of 2015, the plan says. A full-scale model of the ALTAY Turkish main battle tanks was unveiled by the OTOKAR Company at the defence exhibition IDEF 2011, in Turkey.
Scale model of ALTAY Turkish-made main battle tank at IDEF 2011 defence exhibition in Turkey

     

Altay, the Turkish-made main battle tank project, will be complete by the end of 2015, the plan says. A full-scale model of the ALTAY Turkish main battle tanks was unveiled by the OTOKAR Company at the defence exhibition IDEF 2011, in Turkey.

The project was initiated with an agreement signed between Otokar and Undersecretariat for Defense Industries of the Republic of Turkey on 30 March 2007, when the Defense Industries Executive Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, awarded a contract worth approximately $500 million to Otokar for the design, development and production of 4 prototypes of a national main battle tank.

More than 280 projects have been carried out since 2011, according to the new 2012-2016 strategic plan. The total value of the contracts the undersecretariat signed last year was about $27.3 billion.

The plan envisages Turkey’s defense industry entering the top 10 worldwide within five years. The total turnover target for defense and aerospace industry exports for 2016 is $2 billion, out of an overall industry turnover of $8 billion, according to the plan.

Turkey will establish liaison offices in the Middle East, the Far East, the U.S., the Caucasus-Central Asia, and in Europe (EU-NATO). The undersecretariat will encourage collaboration between prime contractors, sub-industries, and small and medium enterprises, with universities and research institutions improving the technological base.

The Turkish government will support the establishment of testing and certification centers that meet international standards, in order to meet non-military and non-public sector demands. A land vehicle test center, a high-speed wind tunnel, an aerial vehicle flight test field, a missile systems test field, a satellite assembly center, and an integration and testing center will be among these facilities, according to the strategic plan.