By Franz-Stefan Gady
Islamabad purportedly has expressed interest in acquiring Istanbul’s new main battle tank, according to media reports.
The head of Turkey’s defense procurement agency, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, Ismail Demir announced earlier this month during a testimony in parliament that Pakistan’s military is interested in procuring the country’s first indigenously-designed third generation+ main battle tank, dubbed Altay, according to local media reports.
“Including Pakistan and the Gulf countries, we can say that countries that we have good relations with are showing a large interest in the tank. Representatives of some countries are being invited to the ongoing firing tests,” Demir said. Tests are currently underway in Turkey’s Sarıkamış district in the eastern province of Kars.
The Altay main battle tank (MBT) is named after Army General Fahrettin Altay, a Turkish cavalry commander from the Turkish War of Independence. In 2008, the Turkish Ministry of Defense awarded the Turkish military vehicles manufacturer Otokar a $500 million contract for the design, development, and production of four MBT prototypes.
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