On 27 June, FNSS signed a contract for the Anti Tank (AT) Weapons Carrying Platform (STA) of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF), at a ceremony held in the Turkish Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), initiated by the Defense Industry Executive Committee’s decision taken on 9 March 2016. The project was first thought up in the early 2000s and involved over a thousand wheeled vehicles for the various AT weapons in the inventory of the TAF, both MILAN and TOW, as well as Grenade Launchers. Over time the total requirement was scaled down to 260 platforms, broken down as 184 tracked and 76 wheeled platforms.
As the TAF started phasing out the MILAN AT Missile and the TOW, to be replaced by the OMTAS Medium-Range AT Missile, currently under development by Roketsan, the STA programme was likewise modified. The 260 vehicles will now only be equipped with the recently acquired KORNET and the OMTAS systems in a mixed approach. The turret development has not yet been finalised, but Aselsan and/or FNSS seems to be the most likely solution, and will feature modern Fire and Command-Control capabilities. In addition to their ready-to-fire AT guided missiles each turret will be equipped with a 7.62 machine gun.
FNSS plans to use the lightest member of the KAPLAN vehicle family as the platform for the tracked type vehicle of the AT vehicles project, while considering the PARS 4x4 as the basis for the project’s wheeled type AT vehicle. See pictures below.
In addition to having ballistic and mine protection, the amphibious tracked and wheeled AT vehicles will be capable of conducting joint operations with armoured units, and have a modular mechanical and electronic infrastructure that enables rapid adaptation of future potential requirements. Design, development and prototype qualification processes will be completed in 2018; and in the following two-year period, serial production shall be completed and delivered to Turkish Land Forces.
As the TAF started phasing out the MILAN AT Missile and the TOW, to be replaced by the OMTAS Medium-Range AT Missile, currently under development by Roketsan, the STA programme was likewise modified. The 260 vehicles will now only be equipped with the recently acquired KORNET and the OMTAS systems in a mixed approach. The turret development has not yet been finalised, but Aselsan and/or FNSS seems to be the most likely solution, and will feature modern Fire and Command-Control capabilities. In addition to their ready-to-fire AT guided missiles each turret will be equipped with a 7.62 machine gun.
FNSS plans to use the lightest member of the KAPLAN vehicle family as the platform for the tracked type vehicle of the AT vehicles project, while considering the PARS 4x4 as the basis for the project’s wheeled type AT vehicle. See pictures below.
In addition to having ballistic and mine protection, the amphibious tracked and wheeled AT vehicles will be capable of conducting joint operations with armoured units, and have a modular mechanical and electronic infrastructure that enables rapid adaptation of future potential requirements. Design, development and prototype qualification processes will be completed in 2018; and in the following two-year period, serial production shall be completed and delivered to Turkish Land Forces.
