Modern Turkish Military

[Kadzik]

Hello,
I’m looking for informations about modern Turkish army organizatio and equipment - at platoon and company level. I’ve just impulse bought M60A3 from PSC and wait impatiently for Fighting Seasons.

[Arrigo]

which years?

[Kadzik]

I was made aware, what "modern" means in wargaming So I'd like to precise, I'm interested in present times, 2010 ad onwards.

[Arrigo]

I will look around,

I have good stuff for the 80s but later on it is not so easy to found detailed organizations below brigade level. By the way I think the M60A3 have been phase out or become M60T.

and do not worry about 'modern' too much... I grew up considering Falklands contemporary... now a colleague of mine said it stretches the definition of modern... 

[Mako]

Definitely not phased out, since I've seen pics of them on the Syrian border in the last year.

I suspect some have even crossed into there as well, along with the Leo 2s.

Not sure if they've been upgrade with the slab-type reactive armor, or not, but IIRC, I don't remember seeing that on their tanks, last time they were shown on the TV news.  I suspect Google Images, or Youtube would be a good reference, if you want the latest, up to date, images/video footage.

Personally, I'd just go with M60A3s so they can perform double duty as Cold War armor too.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

and do not worry about 'modern' too much... I grew up considering Falklands contemporary... now a colleague of mine said it stretches the definition of modern... 

Railway modellers had a similar existential crisis - Modern Image celebrating its sixtieth birthday....

[Kadzik]

Thank you guys!
There are some easly find information for 80s but nothing after. Google and youtube servs well to take a look at equipment and comouflage patterns, but tell nothing about organization

[commissarmoody]

I guess go for the closet NATO counter part vehicle and weapons wise and go from there. 

[Wyrmalla]

I would at first say that they'd perhaps have something similar to the Italians due to their conscription system and location, though ideology likely means that their organisation isn't quite on par. Given the current climate there I'd assume that they haven't met their modernisation targets well enough, and are still stuck in the past somewhat - with a force that's mixing European and Middle Eastern military ideologies.

From a quick look I couldn't find much beneath the battalion level other than images of squads. However those don't really reflect what's on paper. It may be worth going onto one of the Turkish sub-reddits and asking there, I'm sure there's one that's quasi military related.

Oddly this subject's something which isn't easy to find about for most states. I suppose its not a topic which is too popular, at least not in comparison to historical stuff. I doubt many reenactors are covering things at beyond a fire team level at best.

If its guess work then look at whatever APC they're using and work out the commitments from there. They'll likely be using the standard set up of 3 APCs to a platoon, with a platoon command element spread between them. Fit as many soldiers (plus the command) into the APCs as possible (whilst considering a spare seat for gear). Then that there's usually 2-3 guys with Under barrelled grenade launchers per squad in modern forces. 1 RPG type system, plus a couple of lighter launchers. Plus a Machine gun (or two). Possibly looking at which specific APC is in use, then seeing how other countries outfit squads riding them could give the best idea (there's not a massive difference in the set up of NATO countries, and even then load outs fluctuate given the mission scenario).

Then bearing in mind that organisations can be fluid, so the guys who are rolling up on a position that day may just be whoever was around at the time (i.e. even if they're platoon strength or larger, who's to say that what's on the table isn't made up of multiple platoons - with the rest of the guys doing something elsewhere)?

[Arrigo]

We stopped conscription at the start of this century. When I was in the Military Academy in 1996 we were going through the last batches of conscripts in Italy.

I would be very careful to make comments on ideology, the Turkish Army is a longstanding NATO partner, this means that organization and tactics benefit from this association.

Also APCs in NATO tend to be 4 per platoon not three...

anyway, using the Mech Inf company from the 80s as a template we are talking of three platoons of mech infantry with four track each, three squads plus one command group. There was a weapons platoon, some sources  says there was a Mortar track (M125 possibly) certainly it has 2-3 Milan Team carried in another couple of tracks. Right now the M113 are integrated also by Turkish IFV  the ACV (an american AIFV so you can grab or Dutch YPR or Belgian IFV as a proxy). There is also a mortar version of the ACV (81mm so I guess it replaced the M125). Turkey has also more than five hundred BTR-80 if you fancy wheeled APC.

[Captain Blood]

Gentlemen, given that the Turkish military are in action in a real world, highly politicized situation right now, may I refer you to the board rules on post-2000 topics:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=72390.0
Might be worth a re-read in the context of this topic...