Tulpar is a Turkish heavy

infantry fighting vehicle An infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), also known as a mechanized infantry combat vehicle (MICV), is a type of armoured fighting vehicle and armoured personnel carrier used to carry infantry into battle and provide direct fire, direct-fire suppo ...

Otokar Otokar Otomotiv ve Savunma Sanayi A.Ş., also known simply as Otokar, is a Turkish bus and military vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Sakarya, Turkey. Otokar is a subsidiary of Koç Holding. History Otokar was founded in 1963 as Turkey' ...

. It is named after the Tulpar, a winged horse in

Turkic mythology Turkic mythology refers to myths and legends told by the Turkic people. It features Tengrism, Tengrist and Shamanism in Central Asia, Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic and wa ...

. The vehicle has been designed to augment Turkey's new-generation Altay MBT in operations and to safely transport

infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

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,

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 Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Design

Tulpar was designed for the dual role of providing fire support to friendly

main battle tank A main battle tank (MBT), also known as a battle tank or universal tank or simply tank,Ogorkiewicz 2018 p222 is a tank that fills the role of armour-protected direct fire and maneuver in many modern armies. Cold War-era development of more po ...

s 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 NATO AEP-55 STANAG 4569 is a NATO Standardization Agreement covering the standards for the "Protection Levels for Occupants of Logistic and Light Armored Vehicles". The standard covers strikes from kinetic energy, artillery and Improvised explosiv ...

level 2), but it can be upgraded with composite

armor Armour (Commonwealth English) or armor (American English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, e ...

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.

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 The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

that is turbo charged and drives a 32-speed

automatic transmission An automatic transmission (AT) or automatic gearbox is a multi-speed transmission (mechanics), transmission used in motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving conditions. The 1904 ...

. 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 Situational awareness or situation awareness, often abbreviated as SA is the understanding of an environment, its elements, and how it changes with respect to time or other factors. It is also defined as the perception of the elements in the envi ...

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 Tulpar 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 turre
Hitfact
with a 120 mm gun, made by italian firm Leonardo - Otomelara, this is the same turret that arms the second generation of

Iveco Iveco S.p.A., an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company with headquarters in Turin, Italy. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy Commercial vehicle, commercial veh ...

- Otomelara Centauro 2 actually in service with the Italian Army

Operators

Current operators

; :

Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; , TSK) are the armed forces, military forces of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey. The TAF consist of the Turkish Army, Land Forces, the Turkish Navy, Naval Forces and the Turkish Air Force, Air Forces. The Chief of ...

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.

Potential operators

; : Bangladesh is reportedly interested in the procurement of 26 vehicles for light tank roles. ; : The Tulpar is a contender in the

Brazilian Army The Brazilian Army (; EB) is the branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces responsible, externally, for defending the country in eminently terrestrial operations and, internally, for guaranteeing law, order and the constitutional branches, subordina ...

's program to acquire 65 MBTs and 78 IFVs to modenize its armoured forces. Otokar is offering to Brazil an MMBT version equipped with the Leonardo 120 mm HITFACT MkII, and the IFV version equipped with its indigenous 30 mm turret, or the Brazilian Ares UT30Mk2BR, as well the production of the vehicles in Brazil with a

technology transfer Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...

agreement. ; : Otokar is offering the Tulpar for the future '' Heavy IFV'' of the Polish Army. It will compete against AS21 Redback, the General Dynamics Ajax, the Rheinmetall KF-41 Lynx, the BAE Systems AMPV.

Failed bids

; : In 2023, Latvia tested multiple tracked

infantry fighting vehicles An infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), also known as a mechanized infantry combat vehicle (MICV), is a type of armoured fighting vehicle and armoured personnel carrier used to carry infantry into battle and provide direct fire, direct-fire suppo ...

, including a variant of the K21. In November 2024, Latvia announced that it entered in negotiations with GDELS SBS for the purchase of an IFV based on the ASCOD 2.

References

External links

*
Tulpar Otokar AIFV tracked armoured infantry fighting vehicle
armyrecognition.com {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Infantry fighting vehicles of Turkey Armoured fighting vehicles of the post–Cold War period Tracked infantry fighting vehicles Military vehicles introduced in the 2010s Infantry fighting vehicles of the post–Cold War period