It's like beating a deadhorse at this point as this topic has been discussed many times over but Altay project was not delayed due to corruption. That is all rhetoric that is of political origin (sad to say, our political level is pretty low. Attacking the character rather than discussing the issue at hand). The Altay projects on what, how and why it happened is all clear. By claiming corruption, we are actually accusing so many people at SSB, army, etc. that don't deserve it (onlarin gunahina giriyoruz).
The acceptance tests for Altay was passed in february of 2017. Somewhere between february and november of 2017, Otokar and SSB failed to come to an agreement. After SSB rejected Otokar's offers, it resulted in an open tender that included Otokar, FNSS and BMC in november 2017. February of 2018 all companies gave their best and final offers, april of 2018 the tender concluded with BMC winning it. BMC won the tender due to them being the lowest bidder at 3.5 million. While the next lowest contender was at the 6 or 7 million ranges.
BMC winning the tender has nothing to do with favoritism or corruption. If you analyze BMC's corporate strategy it makes sense as to why and how they are able and willing to outbid their competitors: BMC are looking to grow aggressively and by selling 49% of its corporate shares to Qatar, it has the capital to take on more risk as opposed to their direct competitors who do not have this advantage. I think they also rely on being able to supply Qatar once they win these tenders giving them a faster Return on Investment as compared to its competitors who do not have these advantages either. In other words, Qatari capital being involved gives assurences to BMC selling its goods to Qatar making it worth to outbid their competitors. BMC also has engine projects ongoing, once these projects are done, their yield per tank will increase. All these add up and it decreases the risk involved with the tank for BMC giving them the posibility and advantages to outbid their opponents. This allows BMC to take on short term loss by outbidding competitors in tenders, as these losses are an investment for the future (increasing brand name and market share). BMC are also looking to expand outside of the defence industry, they makes buses and truck as we all know, but they also want to make trains and metro's as well (one of the main reasons for the Karasu plant) and they are also involved with the electric car project. Their goal is employing 10.000 (currently at 3000+) people and creating a turnover of 5 billion by 2023 and the steps they are taking seem to be in line with these goals. All this indicates that they want to grow and are acting accordingly. By reverse enginering BMC's steps and looking up their goals/statements, you can sort of guess their strategy and how they have positioned themselves within the market.
Then there were some other problems like the engine, which has nothing to do with Otokar or BMC. And delays for various other reasons. Delays in these types of projects are the nature of the business, it would be a miracle almost for big projects like these to not suffer any delays. Yes it is frustrating but have faith in those that are at the helm of these projects (SSB, etc.). They know what they are doing and have proven so time and time again with all sorts of various projects and the information in this forum is a testament to that. If corruption was an actual issue in our industry, our industry would not have been able to come this far and still plan new projects for the future working towards a vision of 80%+ (among which all strategic components) domestic production. It is all going to plan eventhough there may be delays here and there, they aren't strafing out too much of the roadmap.
Back in 2007, when Otokar won the tender for Altay, they did not have any experience with tracked vehicles either. FNSS was the one with the experience yet Altay was given to Otokar. So SSB knew things that we didn't and it worked out really well. FNSS, Otokar, BMC, these are all strategic companies to us (hepsinede sahip cikmamiz lazim).
