The serial production of Altay main battle tank has turned into a tender as the designer OTOKAR and Turkish Undersecreteriat for Defence Industry (SSM) have failed to reach an agreement due to price issues. 

According to the information C4Defence obtained, six companies are interested in participating. SSM, on the other, has chosen an unprecedented way to select subcontractor and pricing. SSM has set up a selector committee, comprising of 80 individuals, to make use in selecting subcontractors. The committee is to evaluate the competitor subcontractors' sufficiency in terms of finance and production. 

OTOKAR had been proceeding with a particular regulation during its agreement with SSM, which called OTOKAR to work with previously-selected subcontactors. Those subcontractors formed 70 percent of the pricing in OTOKAR's offer.

According to SSM's strategic plan for Altay MBT; the contract would be signed in 2017, the production line would have been completed by the end of 2019 and the first 15 tanks would have been rolled out in 2020 while further 20 manufactured in 2021.