Turkey has always been and remains one of the most important elements of the entire geopolitical structure of the Middle East, even of the entire Mediterranean Sea.
According to Global Fire Power, the Turkish armed forces have an army of about 355,000 people, rank 15th in the world in terms of number, and ninth in strength. The reserve personnel is about 380,000 people. Ankara maintains a military service regime with a period of 6-12 months depending on education level.
Turkey owns a powerful tank force with 3,200 units, mainly imported from Germany and the US, including the Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 of Germany, the M60 Patton and the US M48. The Turkish Army operates approximately 354 Leopard 2, and 397 Leopard 1 tanks.
About 100 Leopard 2s have been upgraded to a more modern standard, as Leopard 2A4TR. In total, Turkey maintains approximately 1,000 M60 tanks in various variants. A large number of M60 tanks have been upgraded to the M60T standard with superior strength compared to the original.
Ankara is also developing an indigenous main battle tank called the Altay. This tank was developed based on the Korean K2 Black Panther chassis. A limited number of these tanks have been built for testing, and they are expected to enter service by the end of 2021.
Turkey’s ground forces also have about 9,500 armored vehicles of all kinds, the majority of which are produced by the domestic defense industry. In addition, they also import some vehicles from the US and Russia.
The Turkish artillery force has about 1,120 self-propelled howitzers, 1,200 towed artilleries, 350 multiple launchers. Currently the T-122 multiple launch rocket system being used in Syria is a variant developed based on the Soviet BM-21 multiple rocket launcher.
The Turkish submarine fleet is highly rated, consisting of 12 German-built Type-209 class diesel-electric attack submarines with some modifications requested by Ankara.
Type-209 is considered one of the quietest non-nuclear submarines, and is the best-selling submarine in the world. With its great military power, Turkey can make the opponent uncomfortable if it wants to confront this country.
