Within the scope of the BMC Defense Press and Media Meeting held in Sakarya on Wednesday, March 22, BMC CEO Murat Yalçıntaş, BMC Defense General Manager Mehmet Karaaslan and BMC Power General Manager Mustafa Kaval came together with the press to talk about important ongoing projects, especially the Altay main battle tank.
During the press and media meeting, developments in some of Turkiye's most important defense industry projects such as the Altay main battle tank, the New Generation FIRTINA Howitzer, and the New Generation Armored Vehicle ALTUĞ 8x8 were shared with the press.
Making the opening speech of the event, BMC CEO Murat Yalçıntaş said, “Arifiye facilities are the property of the Turkish Armed Forces. We have been producing here for 25 years. We make this production under the permission, approval and supervision of the Turkish Armed Forces. There are no foreign nationals working in this factory. The intellectual property rights of domestic and national engines and all other vehicles, especially the Altay tank produced here, belong to our state. All kinds of production and sales in these facilities are made with the permission of our state. The service purpose of our BMC Defense company is to make the Turkish Armed Forces go further and stronger.”
New Altay Tank
Stating that the production of the first two of the new ALTAY tanks is in its final stage and that these tanks will be delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces for testing at the end of April, Yalçıntaş said, “We bought a place for our new factory in an organized industrial zone in Ankara. I hope we will carry out the mass production of ALTAY here.”
After the opening speech, BMC Defense General Manager Mehmet Karaaslan gave information about the ALTAY Main Battle Tank mass production, the New Generation FIRTINA Howitzer, the Leopard2A4 Tank modernization and the New Generation Armored Vehicle ALTUĞ 8x8 projects developed by BMC. Mr. Karaaslan said “We brought together the most competent armored vehicles design and production team in Turkey at Arifiye Facilities. We renewed the infrastructure, working and production areas of the factory, which is one of the most important facilities of our army. We have carried out many projects to increase efficiency and within this scope, we have made very serious investments in the facility in 3 years.”
Karaaslan, who also made statements about the ALTAY tank, based on the questions of the members of the press; He said that sub-systems such as engines and transmissions, which are expected to be supplied from abroad, could not be received due to export permits, so the project was delayed, but due to this delay, a completely different New ALTAY tank was developed.
Mustafa Kaval, General Manager of BMC Power, gave information about the latest stage reached in the domestic and national engine projects, and stated that the work for the BATU powertrain assembly to be used for Altay are rapidly ongoing. Mr. Kaval stated that they aim to start mass production of “New ALTAY” with BMC Power's domestic powertrain assembly in the second half of 2026.
The event ended with the industry representatives' examination of the new generation vehicles produced by BMC DEFENSE at Arifiye Facilities.
