New Turkish tank to enter test process

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - A new Turkish tank, Yeni Altay, delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces last week, will enter a test process, the producer BMC's general manager has said.

Mehmet Karaaslan told Anadolu on Friday that the tank will be tested by the Turkish army for 6,000 different requirements.

Speaking during the country's major technology event TEKNOFEST in Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, Karaaslan stressed that the test process is expected to end in mid-2024 and that the mass production phase will start soon.

The first prototypes of the tank were produced in 2013 and 2014, and since then, experiences gained in the Turkish army's operations, changing war conditions, and new system requirements caused a need to make significant changes to them, the general manager noted.

They made adjustments on the main three elements of the tank, including its mobility, firepower, and survivability, he expressed.

"Now the tank has a hybrid protection, which takes not only passive and reactive, but also active protection," he said.

"Based on the experiences in the field, we decided to make a very serious improvement on the tank's level of protection."

The producer BMC, in a joint work with South Korea, changed the tank's power capability, and tested it, he noted, adding that through the improved protection, the tank's weight and critical elements such as the stabilization of both suspension and fire control, and target tracking were updated.

The firm also worked with the Turkish defense giant Aselsan for the fire control system, integrating a brand new system into the tank, Karaaslan said.

"So, among the prototypes, this tank is a brand new tank, so we call it the Yeni (new) Altay."

It has a high mine protection and indigenous armor system, along with nuclear and chemical threat detection systems.

The tank, equipped with a 120-mm L55 smoothbore and a 7.62-mm coaxial machine gun, has a maximum speed of 65 kilometers per hour (40 miles per hour) thanks to its 1,500-horsepower engine.