New prototype ready for Altay tank program
(Fatih Altaylı's column)
Hatırlayacaksınız, geçen hafta Türkiye'nin Altay tankındaki gecikmeyi sorgulayan bir yazı yazmıştım. 2013'te iki adet ana prototipi Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri'ne teslim edilen, 3 yıllık deneme süresinin ardından 2018'de seri üretim ihalesi yapılan tank, aradan geçen 4 yıla rağmen seri üretime...
www.haberturk.com
(translation)
You may recall that last week I wrote an article questioning the delay in Turkiye's Altay tank.
The tank, two main prototypes of which were delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces in 2013, was tendered for mass production in 2018 after a three-year trial period, but despite the four years that had passed, it had not been put into mass production.
Murat Yalçıntaş called me after the column.
As you may know, Mr. Murat became the CEO of BMC after Ethem Sancak transferred his shares to Tosyalı Holding.
He called and said, "I want to explain the issues you about the Altay tank."
We met in my office yesterday. They came here together with BMC's general manager Mehmet Karaaslan.
"There are a lot of things being said about the Altay tank, both politically and in the media. We don't pay attention to any of them, but when you mentioned it, we felt the need to respond and explain ourselves a bit."
It was Fuat Tosyalı who pulled Yalçıntaş away from academic life and convinced him to work professionally for the first time in his life.
"I've never worked for anyone, I can't do it," he said.
Tosyalı said, "You will be completely free. I will not interfere in your business. Manage this place with the same vision as you manage your own company. I just want to hear and learn what you do in the board of directors," and they shook hands.
General Manager Mehmet Karaaslan has been involved in the Altay tank project since its first day.
When the Altay tank project was initiated by Otokar, Mehmet Karaaslan was the head of this project at Otokar.
When the project changed hands, he followed the project to BMC.
"It's like my son. I've been working on it since I was young and I'm doing my best to see it through to completion. When the tender was won by BMC, there was nothing left for me to do at Otokar. So I moved with the project," he said.
We talked with Yalçıntaş and Karaaslan for close to 3 hours.
They asked that some of what we talked about not be written on the record for the time being due to the sensitivity of the project, and they told us everything.
After the change of BMC's local partner and the transfer of 51 percent of the shares to the Tosyalı group, the first thing they did was to return the land allocated by the state in Karasu.
Mr. Fuat said, "Let's return the allocated land. Let's buy the factory site with our money".
And they bought two large plots of land in two different OIZs in Ankara and Düzce.
Factory constructions started there.
At the controversial Tank Pallet Factory, they started to renew more than 1000 machines that had already completed their economic life.
I also asked Murat Yalçıntaş about BMC's factory land in Izmir. It was rumored that this valuable land would be vacated and turned into a residential and commercial area.
Yalçıntaş denied this.
"There is no such project. That is BMC's headquarters and it will stay there. Neither moving it nor building a residential area in its place is out of the question. Let's go and visit it together whenever you want," he said.
Under the umbrella of BMC, they have established a new company called BMC Power.
"We are moving towards the final stage of developing a domestic engine. A team of 300 engineers at Istanbul Teknopark is working on this. BMC Power has completed the design of 400 horsepower, 600 horsepower, 1000 horsepower and 1500 horsepower engines. If not at the beginning, we will soon put domestic engines in our tanks in mass production. These engines will be installed not only in tanks, but also in all domestically produced defense vehicles. Even armored personnel carriers and storm howitzers. That's why we worked on engines with four different power levels."
They gave very detailed information.
However, my main question was "Why was it delayed so long?"
Mehmet Karaaslan, who has been in charge of the project since the first day of the Altay tank, explained.
"As you said, the prototypes were actually completed and delivered in 2013. Then this tender was held. But in the meantime, the Turkish Armed Forces made new demands regarding the Altay tank. We had to add new capabilities. Within different systems. The change of the power group also required a new design in itself. We reworked all of this, and we have now reached the stage of completing this prototype. In a sense, this is the "New Altay". It is a very differentiated tank from the tank of 9 years ago. This took us a long time. It is now ready and we will deliver two prototypes to the Turkish Armed Forces in 2023.
Actually, it is not correct to call these prototypes. We can say that these are the first two tanks of the first 100 package that we will deliver to the TAF. These will be tested by TAF under field conditions. The first prototypes we gave to the Turkish Armed Forces took more than three years to be tested, but this one will not take that long. After the approval, we will deliver the remaining 98 tanks of the first batch."
After approval, they plan to deliver 8 tanks per month.
Of course, while all this was going on, many countries, including our allies, were trying, perhaps naturally, to complicate and delay this project.
This is also the reason why they want to keep some things confidential for the time being.
However, I couldn't help but ask.
"How right was it to give 49 percent of this business to the Qataris?"
Murat Yalçıntaş's answer was as follows:
"We don't even see the Qatari partners. They are not involved in anything. They are like silent partners. They only get information from the board of directors. Only one person even came to see the factory building. He came one day at the weekend and had a look. As you know, it is the Qatar Army Fund. And they are partners in many very important industrial companies in the world. We also see the benefit of this. They help us open some doors or open them faster. They also have shares in very important defense industry companies in the UK and other countries. We also see their benefits as capital support."
