Turkey's First Main Battle Tank To Be Supplied To Armed Forces In 2-3 Weeks - Erdogan

ISTANBUL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2023) First Turkish-made main battle tank Altay is planned to be delivered to the country's armed forces in 2-3 weeks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

"We are now producing tanks ourselves. God willing, we will put our Altay tank into service and hand it over to the army within 2-3 weeks," Erdogan said in an interview with the TV360 broadcaster.

Murat Yalcintas, the head of Turkish company BMC, has earlier said that Turkey was ready to mass produce Altay tanks, adding that the first two tanks would be delivered to armed forces for trials on April 23. He added that Altay tanks are equipped with Korean-designed, while the Turkish ones will be produced by 2026.

He did not rule out that Ankara could start exporting the Turkish tank to friendly countries.

The Altay project is being implemented under an agreement signed in March 2007 between the Turkish Ministry of Defense and Turkish company Otokar. Since Turkey had no experience in building its own tanks, Otokar signed a contract with South Korean company Hyundai Rotem for the joint development of a prototype of the new tank. Under the contract, Hyundai Rotem transferred to the Turkish side all the technologies used in South Korea's K2 Black Panther tank.

The first prototype of the Altay tank was showcased at the International Defense Industry Fair in Istanbul in May 2011.