Turkey's National Main Battle Tank Project (ALTAY) started with the ceremony held at Otokar factory
The Undersecretariat for the Industries of Turkey (SSM) has contracted Otokar with the designing of first National Main Battle Tank of Turkey. The signing ceremony for the ALTAY Project was realised at Otokar plant.
A Koç Group company Otokar, is contracted as prime contractor for ALTAY Project, conducted by SSM. The Company shall be the exclusively responsible party to SSM regarding the design, development, integration, prototype production, testing, qualification of the first Turkish National Main Battle Tank (ALTAY Tank) and all activities contained in the Project.
Prime Minister Erdoğan attended the ceremony
The signing ceremony was held with the attendance of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish Prime Minister, M. Vecdi Gönül, the Turkish Minister of National , Mustafa Koç, chairman of the Koç Holding, Kudret Önen, President of Koç Holding Industry and Other Automotive Group and Chairman of Otokar, and Serdar Görgüç, General Manager of Otokar.
Sanghee Lee, the Minister of National , representing the Republic of Korea, the country to provide technical support and assistance for the Project and the upper management representatives of Aselsan, Hyundai-Rotem, Makine ve Kimya Endüstrisi Kurumu and Roketsan were also present at the ceremony.
Mr Kudret Önen, President of Koç Holding Industry and Other Automotive Group and Chairman of Otokar, stated that backed with its engineering power, R&D facilities, experiences and technical facilities, Otokar is ready to design new generation tank which will fully meet the requirements of the Turkish Armed Forces, and said: "We pride ourselves on being charged for such a large-scale national project of strategic importance. As it was always the case, we will work hard to deserve this confidence in our Company, in order to attain the result befitting our country. For 45 years, we have introduced many firsts to the automotive industry. We have designed the first military armoured vehicle and we realised export of armoured vehicles for the first time. Since 21 years we are operating in the industry. 25 thousand military vehicles we produced are being used by Armed Forces of more than 15 countries, primarily by the Turkish Armed Forces, and UN duty units in several regions of the world. With ALTAY Project, we will break new ground."
Mr Mustafa V. Koç, Chairman of Koç Holding, stated that he is pleased that an affiliate of the Koç Holding is preferred for the completion of ALTAY Project, which is of utmost importance for Turkey's national industry strategy, and said: "It is certain that this Project will bring enormous acceleration to the land platform development and production field of the industry. In order to become leader in its region, Turkey requires stable government, growing economy and strong armed forces. Considering the prevailing threats and contemporary battle area conditions, it becomes evident that modern equipment, tools and devices which of hi-tech products and capable to dispose of potential threats must be available further to manpower in order to have contemporary and strong armed forces. We have to develop its own resources and capabilities and to develop our own technology also in this field. Only in this way we can cope with the modern era and attain sustainable growth in the national industry."
Murad Bayar, Undersecretary of SSM, talking at the ceremony, said that it's very important that the ALTAY Project reached to the contract signing phase. He also added that this Project will supply Turkish Armed Forces, the third generation modern main battle tank. He said further: "The studies on the modern tank project firstly started on 1996 and was targeted on a production under licence of an existing tank in the world. But this project stopped on 2004 because of the high costs. In 2005, we started working on Turkish National Main Battle Tank Project and in 2007 Otokar had been chosen as the prime contractor of the Project. And the project is called ALTAY. The first 7 years of the Project will enclose the prototype production and testing functions. After the prototype tanks completed the serial production will start for the first 250 tanks."
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However, Chinese are 20 years behind western countries in military Technology. Our Al-khalid tanks are based on the outdated Chinese T-85 tank which itself is based on the Soviet T-72 Tanks. We all know how the Iraqi T-72 were destroyed one by one by western Tanks like Abrams and Leopard. 
