At long last, Turkey’s Altay tank finds an engine from South Korea

[Rangila]

Turkey had hoped to power the Altay with the German MTU engine and RENK transmission, but talks with German manufacturers in recent years failed due to a federal arms embargo on Turkey. Germany is one of a number of European governments that have limited exports to Turkey over its involvement in the Syrian civil war.

In order to bypass German export license restrictions, the South Korean companies will “de-Germanize” some German components in the power pack, sources familiar with the Altay program have said.

At long last, Turkey’s Altay tank finds an engine from South Korea

The Altay program has faced delays due to a lack of access to significant components like the engine, transmission and armor.

www.defensenews.com

 

[T-SaGe]

TAF is in urgent need of the first Altay block. Although a comprehensive modernization program for Leopard 2 was launched, Turkey does not want to accept the harsh conditions put forward by Germany for Altay's engine and transmission, alongside.

There historically and politically friendly relations have been ongoing between Turkey and South Korea. As a result of this, Korea has always been an important partner of Turkey, from important civilian projects to some defense industrial partnerships. Considering the support in the Altay example, it is seen that this is continuing strongly today.

It was known that Korea's related companies were working hard to create a solution for tank engine and transmission that would directly reach MTU and RENK levels. In other words, the Korean Doosan product tank engine is one of the most up-to-date solutions in the search for an alternative.

BMC BATU MBT engine package, which its development activities ongoing as an alternative to MTU for Altay, its first ignition will take place next months. So, there are 3 years of schedule to in front of it, at least. In this process, unlike the conditions set forth by Germany, Korea's perspective of friendship is important and will be taken into account.

 

[hyperman]

I had predicted this would happen, good for them to finally move in this direction. but I suspect the delays will continue, b/ there is no transmission alternative.


This solves the engine problem, but what about the transmission? The Koreans are using the RENK transmission on their K2 Black Panther, they had plans for the S&T Dynamics EST15K transmission they were developing, but it seemed to still be a work in progress, and they are still working on it.

The only ones that have build a full NATO standard tank without importing an engine or transmission or any other critical part from the US/UK/Canada/EU are the Japanese with their Type 10 tanks, but there are issues with its export b/c of Japanese pacifist laws on weapons exports in their constitution. also the powerpack is a bit underpowered.

If I was Turkey, i would put the R&D knowledge gained and the subsystems developed in the Altay tank in the meantime, to upgrade the Leopard 2 Tanks in their inventory, and wait until the Korean transmission is done, before starting Altay production. Or better yet, approach Korea about codevelopment and investment into their program.
The good news is that tanks are probably not the most urgent need for Turkey, its very unlikely that any major tank numbers will be needed in any future turkish mission. so it can afford to take its time to get things right on development of the Altay.

 

[merzifonlu]

There will not be much delay on transmission.

We (yes We, not South Koreans) will solve the robust transmission problem for both ourselves and the South Koreans.

Details will be revealed soon, stay tuned.