If proof were needed, he comes on Sunday: the construction of The main battle tank Altay is the chief thing in Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally want to celebrate according to Reports in the press of the country on Sunday, the laying of the Foundation stone for a new plant of the Turkish vehicle manufacturer BMC, in the town of Karasu on the black sea coast. Here, about three hours East of Istanbul, will be built according to Erdogan’s will, in the future, the indigenous battle tanks by type Altay; an official order for the production of 250 of them got the BMC in November.
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also the German armaments group Rheinmetall was interested in participating in the project; the star has repeatedly reported about it. For Rheinmetall, and BMC had founded in the fall of 2016 especially the Ankara-based Joint Venture RBSS, together with a partner company from Malaysia. But now this comes, according to company information. A Rheinmetall spokesman wrote at the request of the star, that you’ve abandoned the project: “The Joint Venture is currently in the resolution” of common business speaker Peter Rücker. And no, it’s not true “” that you just hold on to the Altay project.
star searches: Rheinmetall could at least help indirectly in production
Recently, there had been according to research by the star, actually, there is new evidence that Rheinmetall could at least help indirectly in the case of the Altay-production. ID have added their Profiles on the career website LinkedIn namely alone since July, 2018 20 new professionals working at RBSS. One of the new staff – an engineer for active safety systems, hired in September of 2018 – is in charge of the Joint Venture according to its own information explicitly to the Altay. About half of the new employees – including a number of other engineers – to RBSS changed by the Turkish competition company Otokar. Otokar had developed for the Turkish defense procurement Agency the prototypes of the Turkish main battle tank. Several of the new RBSS staff indicated to Linked, that they had worked in the past in the development of the Altay. Now you Know-how would benefit so the Rheinmetall offshoot – will be resolved according to Rheinmetall.
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prior to July 2018 RBSS had phased out dozens of professionals, including already at that time, about 20 former Otokar people. One of them, who moved in October 2017 from Otokar to the Rheinmetall offshoot, on LinkedIn, specifically, that he was working on the “preparation” of infrastructure for the quality control in the “factory Karasu”.
it was Believed the, what is the Rheinmetall-Zentrale in Düsseldorf, says, then one would expect in the case of RBSS in place of new hires, more layoffs. However, the company had spread in the past, statements about the Turkey project, to the sound of could have doubts.
Rheinmetall-in-chief said: “We have no intention to build a tank factory”
After the star had made the Turkey-plans for the group in March 2017 in the details public, had given the company the planned tank production first, despite the authoritarian policies of Erdogan and although at that time the arrest of a German journalist Deniz Yücel made headlines. However, after the Rheinmetall intentions triggered protests, rowed back to the company and claimed, in the summer of 2017, the Joint Venture was “not currently active”.
However, the community had a three-story office building in Ankara. However, Rheinmetall chief Armin Papperger tried the “small Investment” in the country of the President Erdogan, according to executives continue to downplay: “We have no intention to build a tank factory,” said he, in November, 2017: “Such rumors are simply not correct.” In the same year, employees at Rheinmetall had created, however, already presentations, which were offered to BMC for the plant project in Karasu, a “partnership” and a “turnkey solution”. It was not, perhaps also because other German companies do not want to participate in the case. But the plans were not died so apparently.
In December 2017 – one month after Pappergers denial – was Yasin Öztürk from the top of BMC’s the thing: The to 40 percent of Rheinmetall-controlled Joint Venture will invest $ 60 million on the site on the black sea coast in Karasu. The same number called in June 2018, the magazine “Defence Turkey”. On satellite images it could pursue in the course of the year to 2018, as larger and larger parts of the total of 222 acres of the future plant premises in Karasu were cleared.
“, Rheinmetall, and the Turkish companies are very satisfied with the cooperation that you have so far,”
Still at the beginning of June 2018, the Turkish foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu praised the close ties with the German group: “Rheinmetall and the Turkish firms are very satisfied with the cooperation that you have so far,” the Minister said in a Reuters Interview: “I have also taken the Rheinmetall representative in Turkey, he is a German friend”. Rheinmetall was “very happy to be in Turkey.”
What had Rheinmetall in Turkey, outlined the company Manager internally already by the end of 2015: We would like to build, together with BMC-1000 brand new battle tank, the type of Altay. The Joint Venture should also be a “Global Player” in the export markets, not least in the Emirate of Qatar, almost 50 percent of the company shares of BMC. Rheinmetall will supply “all the necessary technological expertise”.
So it’s over now so allegedly. In order to accelerate the project, the Turks want to use now also the maintenance centre of their country’s armed forces in Arifiye. The place is not far away from Karasu. A part of the military site in Arifiye is to be reserved for the Work on the Altay, and at the same time, specially privatized.
