“Altay” MBT Serial Production – Otokar Submits Final Bid
Turkey’s largest private capital defense industry company, Otokar, placed its final bid for the serial production of the Altay Tank upon the request of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries. Otokar is the main contractor of the “Altay” MBT.
Otokar General Manager Mr. Serdar Görgüç said, “Following our initial offer which we submitted in January, we placed our final bid today upon the request of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries. As a producer with a hundred percent national capital, we are ready to accomplish this task for the Indigenous Main Battle Tank with our human resources, experience, know-how and technology”.
This final bid placed by Otokar for the serial production of Altay tank consists of the mass production of 250 “Altay” tanks and the Integrated Logistic Support activities of these tanks. With this offer, the aim is the initiation of the mass production activities of the Altay tank, which has cutting edge technology sub-systems, without losing time as well as targeting these modern main battle tanks to immediately enter into the Turkish Armed Forces inventory.
“Altay” Opening Doors for Production Activities in Various Countries
Stating that they were well prepared for this national task as the leading supplier of the Turkish Armed Forces, Otokar General Manager Mr. Serdar Görgüç mentioned that Turkey would soon have its indigenous main battle tank after the realization of the Project and gave the following comment: “With Altay, adding new Technologies and capabilities to the Turkish Defense Industry, our country’s foreign dependency regarding the defense industry will severely decrease. All design and intellectual property rights of Altay will belong to the Republic of Turkey. For our national main battle tank, we are ready to fulfill our responsibilities in the best way possible as a manufacturer with a hundred percent national capital with our human resources, experience, know-how and technology. We accomplished the conceptual design and prototype production of the Altay tank and we have been successfully conducting its tests. During this period, we also studied all the infrastructural requirements and line layouts regarding the serial production process and acquired the Production Licenses from the National Defense Ministry necessary for manufacturing the main battle tanks. We prepared our production schedule in a way to manufacture the first tanks as soon as possible following the award of the contract. In addition to the production of 250 Altay tanks required by the Land Forces Command within 5 years, we made an annual capacity plan by taking into consideration the export potential and the derivative and supplementary vehicle requirements such as minesweeper, rescuer and engineer vehicles. In this way, we aimed to have a flexible production program which will cover all types of demands of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries or other friendly and allied countries”.
Stating that the vehicles designed and produced by Otokar were predominantly used by the NATO and United Nations forces, Mr. Serdar Görgüç underlined that Altay would be paving the way for new export opportunities for Turkey. Mr. Görgüç added, “We believe that Altay will be demanded by various countries and even open the doors for production opportunities in different geographies with friendly and allied countries’ participation in the Project upon the launch of mass production”.
