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This special IDEF 2023 Opinion Newsletter is presented in
partnership with Otokar
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Foss Unglossed: Is Türkiye’s
self-sufficiency drive still on track?
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Expert Defence Analysis | Land
Warfare
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Settling into my hotel in Istanbul this week for IDEF
2023, I had cause to reflect on how far the Turkish armoured fighting
vehicle (AFV) industry has come since the show’s beginnings 16 years
ago.
Passing swiftly
over the reasons for the event’s postponement from May (a certain
presidential election may just have been a factor), it struck me that
Türkiye is now self-sufficient across a complete range of tracked
AFVs, with many of these having a degree of success on the export
market.
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Above: The Kaplan Medium Tank has been developed by FNSS in close
co-operation with PT Pindad of Indonesia, with the first 18 now
delivered. (Photo: FNSS)
Amongst a burgeoning defence industrial base, the largest manufacturer of such vehicles is
FNSS, which is jointly owned by Turkish conglomerate Nurol and global
defence giant BAE Systems.
The company’s history goes back to the late 1980s and
its big break was a contract for 1,698 Turkish Infantry Fighting
Vehicles (TIFVs) in four configurations which were delivered from
1991, with a later follow-on batch of a further 551.
The design has certainly proved its
longevity – In May this year the company was awarded a major contract
to extend the operational life of the Advanced Armoured Personnel
Carrier version of the TIFV to T1 standard.
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Explore
armored vehicles and turret systems of Otokar, the global
land systems manufacturer.
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This includes a new dual remote weapon station (RWS),
advanced situational awareness system, driver’s day/night camera and
display, overhauled power pack, installation of an APU, new
generation vehicle electronics plus upgraded suspension and
survivability.
Major domestic contracts have led to further development
for the export market, resulting in the Armoured Combat Vehicle (ACV)
15 and ACV 19 (the number denotes the gross vehicle weight (GVW) in
tonnes).
These sold well in Türkiye’s backyard and beyond:
Malaysia took delivery of 211 ACV-15s, while the UAE accepted 136
ACV-15s. Significantly these were customised to meet local operating
requirements, a key part of many such export deals.
The heavier ACV-19 has been acquired by Malaysia (eight
120mm mortar vehicles) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with ten
command posts.
This underlines that FNSS has a broad capability in the
design, development and manufacture of AFVs and, very importantly,
through-life support – just building the vehicle is seldom enough
these days!
FNSS is also using the tried and tested joint venture
system with customers such as Indonesia, the KSA and Malaysia. In
most cases this includes technology transfer, a sign of the maturity
of a supplier.
FNSS has also progressed to tank development. The Kaplan
Medium Tank (it could be argued it is actually a light tank) has been
developed by the company in close co-operation with Indonesia’s PT
Pindad, with the first 18 vehicles already delivered. While Jakarta’s
ability to fund major defence procurements has been called into
question in recent years, there is an aspirational requirement for
over 400 of these vehicles.
Armed with a high-pressure 105mm gun and with a combat
weight of only 30t, it is more deployable than the Leopard 2 MBT
operated by Indonesia, a major consideration for the army of an
archipelagic nation. While other countries in Asia-Pacific have
expressed an interest in the type, further export orders have yet to
materialise.
The Kaplan
name has also been given to a new family of tracked vehicles – the
Kaplan 30, 20 and 10, with the number again being the typical GVW.
"... While
Jakarta’s ability to fund major defence procurements has been called
into question in recent years, there is an aspirational requirement
for over 400 of these vehicles."
The Kaplan 10 is deployed by the Turkish Army in the
anti-tank role with an FNSS-developed remote controlled turret (RCT),
and a total of 184 have been delivered.
Using the same baseline chassis as the tank, FNSS has
developed self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and surface-to-air missile
systems now deployed by Türkiye. Interestingly, like the Kaplan 10,
these are fully amphibious with little preparation, perhaps hinting
at some original operational concepts.
Another related design is the Marine Assault Vehicle for
the Turkish Navy, underlining the versatility of the platform. As
with all good AFV families, the potential for specialist variants
seems endless!
One of the more unusual tracked vehicles developed by
FNSS is the Armoured Amphibious Combat Earthmover (AACE), typically
used to prepare river banks for amphibious operations as well as
carrying out bulldozer and scraping work. A total of 12 have been
delivered to the Turkish Army and six will be supplied to the
Philippines by late 2023.
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Above: The
FNSS-developed Armoured Amphibious Combat Earthmover is typically
used to prepare river banks and is fully amphibious. (Photo: FNSS)
FNSS has also expanded into turrets and RWS which can be
installed on their own platforms or other contractor’s vehicles, to
extend operational lives or enhance their firepower. Again, this
shows the wide capability of Turkish industry as on many vehicle
programmes these elements would have been bought in from an outside
supplier in the past.
The company has embraced the trend towards uncrewed
turrets, developing the Teber-30/35 which can be armed with various
medium-calibre weapons and features two stabilised sights with
thermal and day channels plus a laser rangefinder, enabling
hunter/killer target engagements to take place.
Fellow Turkish company Otokar is best known for the
large range of 4x4, 6x6 and 8x8 wheeled AFVs it has developed for
export, but it also has ambitions in the highly competitive tracked
vehicle market.
It has thrown its efforts into the flagship Tulpar
Modular Armoured Tracked Vehicle (MATV), which is marketed for a wide
range of battlefield missions with GVWs of between 28 and 45t.
The baseline model is an infantry fighting vehicle with
a crew of three and nine dismounts, typically armed with an RCT
touting a 30mm dual feed cannon and co-axial MG but the chassis can
also be fitted with a range of turrets including one with a 105mm
high-pressure rifled gun.
Tulpar was first unveiled at IDEF 2013 and no orders for
the platform are known. However, Otokar recently told me that Tulpar
is ready for production, as it is at Technology Readiness Level 8,
and it has also been tested by Kazakhstan.
Otokar has also developed the Tulpar-S amphibious
vehicle with a GVW of up to 17t. As Türkiye has a stated need for
some 1,800 tracked platforms under the New Generation Light Armoured Vehicle
programme, either the Tulpar or Kaplan families could be in line for
some significant production runs eventually.
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Above: Otokar’s Tulpar in IFV configuration equipped with
a 30mm cannon, 7.62mm co-axial MG and stabilised sights for gunner
and commander, with the latter being panoramic for hunter/killer
target engagements. (Photo: Otokar)
Otokar
also designed and built prototypes and pre-production examples of the
Altay main battle tank (MBT) for the Turkish Army, but the build
contract was placed with BMC whose only previous military vehicle
experience was in the design and development of MRAPs for home and
export customers. Politics are again believed to have played a part
in this decision…
Finally, Türkiye has a long tradition of upgrading older
AFVs to extend their operational lives such as the venerable M48 MBT
(with over 2,800 believed to still be in Turkish Army service) and the
M113 series of APC (over 3,000) as well as converting older chassis
for new applications.
This work has been carried out by state-owned contractor
ASFAT which was established in 2018 and runs some 30 factories and
shipyards.
While Turkish tracked AFVs may not yet enjoy the broad
export success of their wheeled counterparts, the country clearly has
the potential to design, build and deliver complex platforms and the
majority of their subsystems. Will this year’s IDEF bring any breakthrough
orders, export or domestic? We’ll have to wait and see.
I'd love to hear what
you think about this newsletter series. Let me know by sending me an
email here!
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