Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently attended a ceremony where the new Altay Tank was delivered for testing to the Turkish Armed Forces.

Erdoğan took to Twitter to express his excitement about the tank's success, saying: ““We did not give up, we did not lose hope, we did not take a step back, and we succeeded. Here is our new generation Altay tank.”

The new Altay Tank is being manufactured by BMC, a Turkish military vehicle company. The company plans to begin mass production in 2025 after the completion of testing in 2024. BMC intends to replace the current South Korean engine with a domestically produced version called the BATU in 2026.

The BATU engine is a 1,500-horsepower, 12-cylinder, V-type, water-cooled, turbo diesel engine that can produce 4,600 nanometers of torque. BMC plans to produce 100 tanks annually, with 25 to 30 designated for export.

The Altay project has faced significant delays since its inception in 2007 due to challenges in securing critical components such as engines and transmissions. However, in 2018, the Turkish Presidency of Defense Industries signed a contract with BMC to produce 250 Altays.

The tank has undergone significant changes since its original design in the 2000s, according to BMC Defense General Manager Mehmet Karaaslan. These changes include an active protection system, improved armor system, renewed fire control system, renewed vehicle control system, and concentrated power group. The tank is equipped with a 120mm Rheinmetall main gun, a .50 caliber heavy machine gun, and a 7.62mm medium machine gun. (ILKHA)