President of Defence Industries Prof. Dr İsmail Demir answered a question regarding the engine and mass production schedule of the Altay Main Battle Tank (BMT) at the press conference held at Roketsan's facilities in Lalahan.

Reminding the process of bringing together a small number of engines used in prototype studies, Demir said, “We have a temporal roadmap about its timing, not leaving a huge gap between the alternative engine being found, brought and entering the system. Once you have established and produced the line, it is not like to wait a year or two after making a certain investment there. A synchronized road map is being considered, but the establishment of the line for mass production and the work on the plant has started right now, and we expect the line to be operational and production to begin towards the middle of the next year, not this year. Shifting its timing a little or pushing it forward is somewhat related to the schedule for the other engine to kick in, but we'll see it go out of production next year. Of course, it could be said that 'this could have been done before' but there was no point in keeping this interval too long. Waiting for three or five tanks after that would generally mean keeping a certain investment dead. “There are settings here regarding both temporal and operational synchronization.”