The Turkish organization SSB has been rolling out mass production on the Altay tank, a critical step for Turkish defense power.
This presents a main combat weapon under native manufacturing, which sets up another important milestone towards its increasing strength in this defense technology area.
The first production series concentrates on the T1 configuration of the Altay, a 65-ton-plus machine in its base format. The weight can then be increased with extra armor modules, further hardening the vehicle’s exterior.
The tank has heavy protection, with composite armor manufactured by Roketsan protecting the front, hull, turret, and both sides and top. The turret is further fitted with the KAZ Akkor active protection system developed by Aselsan. It also supplies the control system and electro-optics.
The crew of four personnel operates the Altay tank, including a commander, gunner, loader, and driver. The prime armament of the tank is a 120mm smoothbore gun equipped with a 55-caliber barrel developed by MKE.
This gun is based on the Korean Hyundai Wia CN08 gun found in the K2 Black Panther tank, though it differs in that it utilizes manual shell loading.
Complementing the main gun is a 7.62 mm machine gun, likely a locally produced variant of the FN MAG, and a 12.7 mm machine gun housed in a remote-controlled module, the Turkish version of the American M2 Browning. The turret is also equipped with smoke grenade launchers.
The Altay contains advanced electronic systems, a complex protection suite against mass destruction threats, and multi-band camouflage, with a camouflage coating minimizing thermal and radar visibility.
Its power comes from four-stroke diesel engines placed in a V12 format and is currently comprised of a Korean Hyundai Infracore DV27K HD engine with an output of 1500 hp.
It houses the SNT Dynamics EST15K automatic transmission with further plans to shift towards a Turkish Batu powertrain under BMC Power.
The Altay’s hydropneumatic suspension enables it to reach 65-70 km/h on asphalt and 45 km/h off-road with a range of about 450-500 km. The Turkish Ground Forces plan to procure 1000 Altay tanks in four batches of 250 units each.
The T1 variant will be developed into the T2 version, with many improvements, including a completely isolated second-tier ammunition rack.
A T3 version is under development, too, equipped with a remotely controlled turret system and crewed from an isolated, heavily armored cabin at the front of the hull.
A separate, specialized complex for operations in urban warfare has been designed for T3, called AHT, which stands for asymmetric Harp Tankı.
The Altay chassis can be used as a basis for developing additional vehicles, such as an armored recovery vehicle, assault bridge, and mine clearance vehicle, which will make it even more versatile on the battlefield.