New Turkish Tank's Design

[olkiej]

this is the first image of the tank,probably it will look something like that...a professor from Mimar Sinan University(industrial designer) designed this pearl.

Turkish Tank Project
TURKEY'S DOMESTIC TANK PROGRAM WELL UNDERWAY!

Turkey spends billions of dollars annually for foreign weapons. In order to help reduce this huge drain of funds, Turkish Ministry of Defence has decided to authorize three domestic firms for the upcoming tank project that consists of local development and production of 1000 new generation tanks.

The Undersecreteriat for Defence Industries (SSM), the department that oversees Turkey's military procurements, actuated a major tender that requires companies develop the tank using domestically available capabilities with as little foreign-based technological input as possible. According to the sources, the project has been named MITÜP, short for Milli Imkanlarla Tank Uretimi Projesi, and SSM expects the companies to respond to the offer on or before February 17th 2006.

As it has been done before in older procurement projects initiated by SSM, the company or companies who do respond within the given time frame will then be able to estimate their expenses and issue a price proposal back to SSM.

OBJECT: PRODUCTION USING NATIONAL RESOURCES

In order to improve the current technical capabilities of the Turkish defence industries and increase the amount of domestic contribution towards national defense, SSM adjudicated that a "National Tank" will serve as an excellent catalyst and purpose for both uniting certain Turkish defence companies aroung the same goal and providing the Turkish military with massive firepower in the form of a modern tank.

In accordance with this startegy, the companies will have to meet a certain set of criteria such as being located in Turkey and bearing more than 50% Turkish-based capital, having produced and sold military transport equipment (with tracks or tires) and being able to prove that there are products manufactured by that company that are currently in use with the Turkish Armed Forces.

A consideration process will then be started by SSM for those companies that met and exceeded all the previously set criteria and successfully completed the forementioned course of action.











Link: http://www.trmilitary.com/english/eturk.htm

 

[Khairul Alam]

wow, quite impressive. but the tank looks as if its design has been borrowed from the German Leopard 2 tanks. Still, nice work by Turkey

 

[olkiej]

wow, quite impressive. but the tank looks as if its design has been borrowed from the German Leopard 2 tanks. Still, nice work by Turkey

it looks more like a light modified merkawa to me

 

[TrangleC]

Doesn't look like a Leopard-ripoff to me.
It's rather "Merkava-ish" due to the bulky chassis and the frontal turret design.

 

[DoC_FouALieR]

Weird..
Looks like a hull of M60 with a Merkava-like turret on it.

It seems that ammo rounds are stored in the turret bustle, but in the "wrong" orientation... is it a manual or automatic reload system?

 

[Waylander]

The orientation looks like one for manual loading.
The rounds in Leos or Abrams are stored in the same way.

Looks nice.

 

[olkiej]

Weird..
Looks like a hull of M60 with a Merkava-like turret on it.

It seems that ammo rounds are stored in the turret bustle, but in the "wrong" orientation... is it a manual or automatic reload system?

This is just an prototype poeple, This project will finish in 2015 or something.. Turkey is already working on the simple things like the turret and stuff. But the design can change..

 

[eckherl]

Kinda looks like a Challenger 2 hull with thicker ballistic armored skirts, it is a good looking tank, when will Turkey decide on the final version, have they set up a timeline for the competition yet.

 

[orko_8]

Kinda looks like a Challenger 2 hull with thicker ballistic armored skirts, it is a good looking tank, when will Turkey decide on the final version, have they set up a timeline for the competition yet.

It is planned that all design, test and prototype trials will be completed by 2012-2013. Serial production will then commence, in batches of 250 tanks.

 

[Big-E]

Is Turkey hoping to export this?

 

[orko_8]

Is Turkey hoping to export this?

For now all plans are to design & build a tank modern and capable enough for a good replacement of the huge fleet of tin cans, i.e M-48, M-60 and Leopard's. Export is also one of the golas, but a secondary one.

Keeping in mind that armored vehicle producers like Otokar and FNSS have strong ties with Middle Easteren and Asian countries, it may have some chance, if any.

 

[Waylander]

I hope not.
Our struggling defense sector doesn't need another competitor.

So in the end I shoul hope for Turkey having enough problems with this project to cancel it and instead buying Leopard 2A6EX with all gadgets.

 

[orko_8]

I hope not.
Our struggling defense sector doesn't need another competitor.

So in the end I shoul hope for Turkey having enough problems with this project to cancel it and instead buying Leopard 2A6EX with all gadgets.

Well I seriously expect that Germany will come up with a very tempting offer covering Leopard 2AXX (whatever it may be) in max. 5 years' time.

 

[eckherl]

It is planned that all design, test and prototype trials will be completed by 2012-2013. Serial production will then commence, in batches of 250 tanks.

Is this tank still in the running for a evaluation by the Turkish Army

 

[turin]

I doubt it. Turkey clearly wants to have a completely indigenous project now and they wanted to review their relations to France after some political fallout. I guess that also includes military cooperation and Giat was probably its first victim. As long as the national project seems to work, I think this wont change.

 

[BilalK]

So is the Turkish tank weigh around the same as Leopard 2? Or would it likely be lighter in the 50-55 ton range? Nonetheless, that is an awesome design.

 

[orko_8]

There are two teams competing for the tank project: Otokar and BMC - FNSS consortium. They will select a foreign partner for technical assistance: either Germany or South Korea. No details regarding the teams' proposals have surfaced yet, so we don't know whether their proposals will be more or less Leo2ish or not.

The above model of modified Leclerc was proposed by Giat (now Nexter), but found no interest. Giat still promotes it for MOUT & low intensity conflict environments.

 

[eckherl]

There are two teams competing for the tank project: Otokar and BMC - FNSS consortium. They will select a foreign partner for technical assistance: either Germany or South Korea. No details regarding the teams' proposals have surfaced yet, so we don't know whether their proposals will be more or less Leo2ish or not.

The above model of modified Leclerc was proposed by Giat (now Nexter), but found no interest. Giat still promotes it for MOUT & low intensity conflict environments.

What type of assistance will they be working with in regards to South Korea.

 

[aaaditya]

wow, quite impressive. but the tank looks as if its design has been borrowed from the German Leopard 2 tanks. Still, nice work by Turkey

there also seems to be some israeli influence(israeli merkava),particularly the front side of the turret(it resemble the israeli merkava's turret a bit).

 

[olkiej]

yeah it really has a merkawa'iísh look.. Well since Turkey is a big country they need a faster Tank, than the merkawa, but it must still carry troops, and the armor must also be good.

Israel doesnt need a fast tank, but a tank wich is durable, and with heavy armor, speed is not the imortant factor here, because the tanks are mainly deployed in urban areas. Well my fav. tank is of course the Merkawa mk4, i love the design, it looks awsome.