Otokar Tulpar

Tulpar is a Turkish heavy infantry fighting vehicle designed by the Sakarya-based automotive manufacturer Otokar. It is named after the Tulpar, a winged horse in Turkic mythology.

Tulpar
Tulpar as shown at the DSEI-2019
Type	Infantry fighting vehicle
Place of origin	Turkey
Production history
Designer	Otokar
Designed	2011
Manufacturer	Otokar
Unit cost	$1.2 million
Produced	2012
No. built	4
Specifications
Mass	32 tonnes (35 short tons) (up to 42 tonnes (46 short tons) depending on configuration)
Length	7,230 millimetres (23.72 ft)
Width	3,400 millimetres (11.2 ft)
Height	2,676 millimetres (8.780 ft) (turret ceiling)
Crew	3 (commander, gunner, driver) 9 troopers
Armor	protects against 25 mm APFSDS
Main armament	30 mm dual-fed cannon
Secondary armament	7.62 mm coaxial machine gun
Engine	Scania DSI 14 litres or DSI 16, V8 Diesel 810 hp (410- 595 kW) 2300 Nm Turbo Diesel
Power/weight	24.1 hp/tonne
Transmission	SAPA SG-850, 32-Speed Automatic
Suspension	torsion bar
Operational range	600 km
Maximum speed	70 km/h

The vehicle has been designed to augment Turkey's new-generation Altay MBT in operations and to safely transport infantry to the front lines while providing fire support for other armored units. The IFV is also available in variants such as reconnaissance, command-and-control, personnel carrier, mortar, recovery, launch rocket system, air defence, ambulance and anti-tank vehicles.

Background

Even though the TSK has not formally posted an immediate requirement for a new infantry fighting vehicle, Otokar has started the development of Tulpar along with the Altay. Indeed, Tulpar was designed by the same team that developed Altay. After a 3-year design and development stage, Tulpar was finally unveiled to the public in 2013 at the IDEF international defense fair in Istanbul.

Design

Tulpar was designed for the dual role of providing fire support to friendly main battle tanks and safely transporting troops in a high-threat environment. Resistance against IEDs, small mines and high ballistic protection for its crew were among the high priority design criteria. Tulpar is also fully networkable with the Altay MBT and other units.

In its basic form the Tulpar provides protection against small arms (STANAG 4569 level 2), but it can be upgraded with composite armor that provides protection against 25 mm projectiles (STANAG 4569 level 5). Tulpar features modular armor. This allows the maintenance center to quickly swap any damaged armor panels and also makes the IFV easily upgradable for added protection against higher caliber projectiles. Export customers of Tulpar can decide on what level of protection is desired based on their specific threat environment, terrain and IFV configuration.

Otokar plans to install a hard kill system on the future variants of Tulpar. The vehicle is fully NBC protected.

Mobility

Tulpar is powered by an 810 hp, 15.7-liter, water-cooled V8 diesel engine that is turbo charged and drives a 32-speed automatic transmission. Suspension comes standard with a hydraulic damper and can carry up to 45 tons on the hull. Tulpar's maximum speed is 70 km/h and economic range is 600 km.

Armament

Otokar's Tulpar is fitted with the Mızrak-U turret system armed with a 30mm dual-fed automatic cannon and a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun. The turret will be equipped with the Umtas anti-tank missile.

Situational awareness

Tulpar's crew enjoy full 360-degree day/night situational awareness thanks to an array of electro-optic sensors located on the Hull and Turret.

Variants

Tulpar IFV

Basic IFV model as described above.

Tulpar-S

First unveiled at IDEF 2015, the Tulpar-S is significantly lighter (15 tonnes), shorter and narrower than the Tulpar. It is a multi-purposed vehicle platform which retains basic features of standard Tulpar-IFV and has been designed to be both a light and an amphibious platform. Like the Tupar IFV, the Tulpar has been designed to be modular and can be configured for a variety of roles with a variety of weapons platforms.

In the weapons-carrying, ATGM-armed RCT configuration, the Tulpar-S features a three-person crew (driver, commander, and gunner), with space for two dismounts. In its armoured-personnel-carrier version, the vehicle will also feature a three-person crew but with space for eight dismounts.

Tulpar light tank

The Tuplar light tank was first shown at Eurosatory 2018. It features a Cockerill 3105 turret mounted on the Tulpar chassis.

An other version of the Tulpar light tank was shown at World Defence Show in Ryad (Saudi Arabia) in February 2024, armed with a turret Hitfact with a 120 mm gun, made by italian firm Leonardo - Otomelara, this is the same turret that arms the second generation of Iveco - Otomelara Centauro II actually in service with the Italian Army

Operators

• Turkey: Turkish Armed Forces is expected to initially order up to 400 vehicles to augment the first batch of 250 Altay main battle tanks pending the evaluation trials of the IFV.

See also

• Abhay Infantry Combat Vehicle developed in India
• Anders Polish prototype family of medium, tracked combat vehicles
• Ajax armoured fighting vehicles family for the British Army
• ASCOD Austrian/Spanish cooperation armoured fighting vehicle family
• Bionix Singaporean armoured fighting vehicles
• BMD-4 Russian amphibious IFV
• BMP-3 Soviet and Russian IFV
• Borsuk Polish amphibious IFV
• BTR-4 Ukrainian amphibious IFV
• CV 90 Swedish tracked armored combat vehicle
• Dardo Italian Army IFV
• Hunter Singaporean armoured fighting vehicles
• Kurganets Russian future amphibious modular IFV/APC
• K21 South Korean IFV
• Lynx German armoured fighting vehicle
• Makran Iranian APC
• M2 Bradley armoured fighting vehicle platform of the United States
• Namer Israeli heavy APC
• Schützenpanzer Puma German IFV
• Type 89 IFV Japanese IFV
• T-15 Russian future heavy IFV
• Warrior British APC/IFV
• ZBD-04 Chinese IFV

External links

• Tulpar, Military-Today
• Tulpar Otokar AIFV tracked armoured infantry fighting vehicle, armyrecognition.com