Turkey already wanted to modernize its M60s in the early 2000s.

In the meantime, the M60 will likely remain in service for the foreseeable future. Turkey plans to introduce its much more modern domestically-produced Altay main battle tank sometime in this decade. A large portion of Ankara’s tank fleet consists of M60 tanks, with over 1,000 still in service. They took all these elements and tried to design their own tank.” “Some elements are borrowed from the M48 and the British Chieftain tank. “It is based on the T-72 platform, but it also has something from the American Abrams and M60 tanks,” said Russian military analyst Vladimir Bogatyrev. As with its previous domestically-built tanks, the Karrar borrows components from several other tanks. The Karrar strongly resembles the T-90 and, like the T-90, can reportedly fire anti-tank laser-guided missiles from its main gun. Iran insisted it doesn’t need to import tanks when it can make its own.

When the Iranian Army expressed its desire to procure Russian T-90 tanks in 2016 Tehran only bought 24 and immediately sent them all to a pro-Assad militia in Syria. Example of an Iranian domestically-produced Karrar tank.

Turkish tanks modern, us made