Centenary dream has come true: Turkey will have its own combat tank
Turkey, September 18, 2025 – The licensed production of the South Korean K2 tanks in Turkey officially began on September 5, written by journalists from the American military magazine Military Watch Magazine. The authors of the article inform that it was the defeat of the German Leopard 2 that forced Ankara to create their own heavy tank Altay.
Thus, after a few years of delay, September 5, 2025, the licensed mass production of South Korean basic combat tanks K2 in Turkey, namely a deeply modified local version of Altay, officially began. It was organized by the BMC Otomotiv automotive concern. This is the first tank in history to be produced in Turkey. Specifically, in Ankara in a plant in a specialized industrial zone for the air and space industry. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the BMC Fuat Tosyali called it the fulfillment of the “100-year dream” of the country’s defense industry.
“This great dream has now become a reality. The President watched almost every step of this project and was very helpful,” he added. Although the licensing production of the K2 tanks has already begun in neighboring Poland, many years of experience of the Polish defense industry with tanks production during the Cold War and significantly lower requirements for the first battle adjustments have been facilitated by the whole process.
Turkey’s interest in buying K2 tanks dates back to 2000, when his long-time opponent Syria had one of the largest tank armies in the world, equipped with modern T-72 tanks.
The need for new tanks increased after the Turkish army in mid -2010 deployed its most powerful combat vehicles, the German Leopard 2, to operations against terrorists. This led to disastrous losses.
Stars and Stripes noted that the reputation of German tanks was damaged in the fighting with terrorists, while National Intest described their combat use as a “shocking demonstration” that “they were not so well armored”. As a result, they “proved to be shamefully vulnerable in combat” despite the fact that they did not face a well -armed enemy.
High Turkish officers have identified the first deductions of the Leopard 2 tank with extremist militants as a “trauma” for the army. This raised serious questions about the survival of the leopard 2 tank and even less advanced M60 tank, which formed most of the Turkish equipment, in the fight against the modern army.
Altay differs from the original K2 by many design elements. The Turkish version is significantly more robust, has an elongated torso with seven instead of six pairs of wheels and reinforced passive armor, which significantly increases its weight. It affected the mobility of the tank.
A significant disadvantage of the Turkish version is the absence of automatic charging, which increases the number of crew members from three to four and reduces cadence from twelve to six shots per minute.
Since K2 is generally considered the strongest NATO tank in the world and modern non-worst models, such as the Russian T-90M and the North Korean Chonma-2, they have not reached the Middle Eastern market, and Altay is expected to be the main candidate for the title of the strongest tank in the region.
The aging tank fleet of Turkey makes extensive procurement of new K2 vehicles, particularly transforming for the balance of force on land. However, the overthrow of the Syrian government with the support of Turkey, West and Israel in December 2024 and basically the collapse of the Syrian armed forces could lead to the limitation of Altay production plans, since the main objective of building the Turkish army basically ceased to exist.
Max Bach
