Leopard 2A4 replaced after combat in Syria

To implement the plan, the Turkish Ministry of Defense Industry (SSB) has just signed a contract to mass produce 250 Altay tanks and logistics support packages with the country's defense contractor BMC.

The contract states that BMC will produce 40 tanks in the first phase, with the first expected to be delivered to the army 18 months after the contract is signed. Although the contract is considered quite large, the value of the order is still confidential.

According to BMC Chairman Ethem Sancak, due to the urgent delivery time, the first batch of Altay will use imported engines and in the next batch, Altay will use BMC engines to increase the domestic ratio.

Türkiye's decision to use a domestic product to replace the world's most powerful tank, the Leopard 2A4, is believed by experts to be related to the tank's poor combat performance on the Syrian battlefield in 2017.

And this replacement is completely worthy when Altay converges the top features of both German Leopard and Korean-developed K2 Black Panther. On Altay, the technology ratio of K2 Black Panther accounts for up to 60%, but overall, this is still not a copy product.

The Altay's interior design is similar to other conventional tanks with a crew of four, including the driver sitting in the front, the commander and gunner in the middle, and the engine in the rear. Due to the rather long hull with 7 drive wheels, it allows for the installation of a more powerful engine and better armor protection.

The Altay tank weighs 65 tons; hull length 7.7 m (10.3 m with the gun facing forward); width 3.9 m; height 2.6 m. The MTU 883 multi-fuel engine with 1,500 horsepower gives a maximum speed of 70 km/h on good roads, with a range of 500 km.

The Altay's main weapon is a 120 mm L55 smoothbore gun manufactured under license from Rheinmetall, capable of firing all types of ammunition including high-explosive fragmentation, shaped-charge, and subcaliber kinetic energy penetrators... but it is unclear whether it can launch missiles through the barrel.

The Volkan-III fire control system is supported by thermal imaging and laser rangefinders, allowing the vehicle to maintain accurate fire even at night and in adverse weather conditions. The Altay's secondary armament consists of a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun and a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun mounted in a turret controlled from the inside.

The Turkish Army plans to produce up to 1,000 Altay main battle tanks, divided into four production batches of 250 each. The tank has now completed all the most rigorous tests and entered the mass production phase.