The Most Powerful Tank in the Middle East: Turkey Begins License Production of South Korean K2s

Following several years of delays, the license serial production of South Korean K2 main battle tanks in Turkey, and specifically the heavily customised local Altay variant,officially commenced on September 5. Produced by the local automobile manufacturer BMC Otomotiv, the tank is the first in history to be produced in Turkey, with production being located in the capital Ankara at a facility within the Aerospace and Aviation Specialised Organised Industrial Zone.BMC Chairman Fuat Tosyali described as the realisation of a “100-year dream” for the Eastern European country’s defence sector. “This great dream has now become reality. The President followed almost every stage of this investment and provided great support,” he added. Although license production of the K2 was previously initiated in neighbouring Poland, the Polish defence sector’s long history of experience with tank manufacturing during the Cold War, and the much lower requirements for customisation of early batches, made this a smoother process.

Turkish interest in procuring K2 tanks began in the 2000s, at a time when the country’s longstanding adversary Syria fielded one of the largest tank forces in the world, which was equipped with modern T-72 main battle tanks. The perceived need for the new tanks grew after the Turkish Army deployed its most capable operational tanks, German-supplied Leopard 2s, for operations against both Islamic State jihadists and Kurdish paramilitary units in Syria and Iraq in the mid-2010s, which resulted in catastrophic losses. Stars and Stripes assessed that the German tank’s reputation “has taken a pounding in battles with Islamic State militants,” with the National Interestdescribing a performance in combat that “shockingly illustrated” that they were “not so good armour after all.” They were “proven embarrassingly vulnerable in combat” despite not facing well armed adversaries. Senior Turkish officers described Leopard 2 units’ early engagements with Islamic State forces as “trauma” for their forces. This raised serious questions regarding the survivability of the Leopard 2, and the even less capable M60 that made up the majority of the Turkish fleet, against a modern fighting force.

The Altay tank differs from the original K2 in a number of its design features. The Turkish customised variant is significantly larger, with a longer hull including seven rather than six pairs of wheels, and more passive armour which significantly increases its weight. This comes at the expense of mobility. A notable shortcoming of the Turkish variant is the lack of an autoloader, which requires an increase in crew from three to four personnel, and reduces the rate of fire from twelve to just six rounds per minute. With the K2 widely considered the most capable NATO-compatible tank class in the world, while modern non-Western tank classes such as the Russian T-90M and North Korean Chonma-2 have made no inroads into Middle Eastern markets, the Altay is expected to be a leading contender for the title of the most capable tank class in the region. The obsolescence of the Turkish Army’s current tank fleet makes the large scale procurement of new K2-derived tanks a particular transformative development for the balance of power on land. The overthrow of the Syrian government by Turkish, Western and Israeli backed insurgents in December 2024, however, and the effective collapse of the Syrian Armed Forces, may result in cuts to the Altay’s planned production numbers as the primary target for Turkey’s military buildup has effectively ceased to exist.