The Turkish Army has officially inducted into service the first domestically developed and produced Altay main battle tanks during a ceremony led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the “BMC Ankara New Generation Tank and Armored Vehicle Production Plant.”
During the event, Erdoğan thanked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Qatar, Sheikh Saud bin Abdurrahman bin Hasan bin Ali Al Sani, along with other national and foreign authorities. “I express my gratitude to all those who work tirelessly to develop, strengthen, and achieve the goal of full independence for our defense industry,” the president stated, emphasizing Turkey’s goal of becoming “fully independent in defense.”
The president noted that the new BMC industrial complex covers 840,000 square meters and will employ more than 1,500 qualified personnel. According to the information provided, the 63,000-square-meter production line will be capable of manufacturing eight Altay tanks and ten Altuğ 8×8 armored vehicles per month. Erdoğan stressed that the objective is to reduce external dependence: “Our goal for the Altay tanks is to be independent from anyone, especially regarding critical materials,” he affirmed.
Erdoğan further indicated that the Altay successfully passed all testing stages, with over 1.5 million hours of engineering work, 35,000 kilometers of field testing, and 3,700 live rounds fired. “We are proud to deliver today the first of our Altay tanks to our heroic army,” he declared, announcing that deliveries will continue in the coming years with increasing production volumes.
Meanwhile, the president of the Defense Industry Agency (SSB), Haluk Görgün, formally presented the acceptance certificate to the Commander of the Turkish Land Forces, General Metin Toker. During the ceremony, Erdoğan also expressed gratitude to BMC and the project’s international partners, especially Qatar.
Features and production timeline
The Altay program—conceived as Turkey’s first domestically designed and manufactured Main Battle Tank (MBT)—experienced several delays before reaching the production phase. The main contractor, BMC, confirmed that the first units correspond to the Altay T1 version, equipped with a 1,500-horsepower DV27K diesel engine produced by Hyundai Doosan Infracore and an EST15K transmission from SNT Dynamics, both of South Korean origin.
Out of a planned total of 250 tanks, the first 85 units will be of the T1 version, while the remaining 165 will correspond to the Altay T2 model, which will incorporate the locally developed BATU engine. According to the official schedule, three units will be delivered in 2025, eleven in 2026, forty-one in 2027, and thirty in 2028, completing the T1 batch. Deliveries of the Altay T2 are set to begin in 2028.
Its crew consists of four members: commander, gunner, loader, and driver. The main armament is a 120 mm smoothbore cannon produced by MKE, complemented by modular armor developed by Roketsan and the AKKOR active protection system by Aselsan, designed to intercept and neutralize anti-tank threats.
A new step in Turkey’s defense industry
During the ceremony, Erdoğan emphasized that the production of the Altay marks “a new stage in the country’s technological independence” and that the project “will open the doors to a new era in tank technology.” He also highlighted the cooperation with Qatar’s defense industry and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to developing national military capabilities.
The ceremony concluded with the symbolic delivery of the first two Altay tanks to the Turkish Army and a demonstration of armored vehicles produced by Turkey’s defense industry.
*Images sourced from Anadolu Ajansı and Milliyet.
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