YOL BAK: the tier-two supplier behind Turkey’s T-155 Yavuz truck-mounted howitzer
NATO’s artillery debate since 2022 has been about two things at once: barrel count and how fast a country can put a 155 mm tube on wheels without waiting years for a tracked chassis line. Turkey answered that question in 2017 with the MKE T-155 Yavuz. The part of the answer that rarely gets named is the company that built the vehicle superstructure — YOL BAK, a road-maintenance equipment maker in Akyurt, north-east of Ankara.
The firm states its role plainly in its own corporate material: it carried out the design and manufacture of the vehicle superstructure together with MKE, as a subcontractor. It describes the result as Turkey’s first 155 mm / 52-calibre howitzer mounted on a tactical wheeled vehicle.
Why the superstructure is the hard part
On a truck-mounted howitzer the ordnance is usually the mature item. The engineering risk sits in everything around it: chassis reinforcement able to absorb recoil without transferring it into the frame, ammunition stowage that survives cross-country transit, a crew cab that is habitable during sustained fire, and the hydraulics that stabilise the platform between rounds.
YOL BAK’s scope covers that list — reinforced chassis, semi-automatic ammunition loading, purpose-built ammunition stowage, shock-absorbing hydraulics, an electrically driven winch, operator platforms and an ergonomic cab. The company says the superstructure was designed against MIL-STD-810G environmental criteria. Runflat tyres, a CBRN warning set, smoke dischargers and a command-and-control unit are part of the integrated system.
Where Yavuz sits against Western equivalents
The published figures place Yavuz in the same band as the wheeled 155 mm systems European armies have been buying since 2022 — Archer, CAESAR, RCH 155, Zuzana 2. Five crew, four to six rounds per minute, 18 rounds carried, 32 tonnes, 90 km/h road speed and 600 km range on a 6×6 chassis with a Euro-5 diesel. Range runs from 18 km with M107 to 40 km with MOD274 ammunition.
The comparison that matters for European procurement officers is not headline range. It is industrial: Yavuz’s superstructure comes from a firm whose day job is snow ploughs, salt spreaders and municipal service bodies. That is a different cost base from a dedicated armoured-vehicle house, and it is one of the structural reasons Turkish land systems undercut Western pricing without importing the whole product.
| System | MKE T-155 Yavuz |
| Calibre | 155 mm / L52 |
| Chassis | 6×6 tactical wheeled vehicle |
| Crew | 5 |
| Rate of fire | 4-6 rounds per minute |
| Onboard rounds | 18 |
| Combat weight | 32 t |
| Road speed / range | 90 km/h / 600 km |
| Superstructure | YOL BAK (subcontractor to MKE) |
The tier-two question
Western defence ministries spent 2023-2025 mapping their own tier-two and tier-three suppliers and discovering how thin those layers had become. Turkey’s version of that layer looks different. YOL BAK runs two plants — Akyurt in Ankara and Kemalpaşa in İzmir — and splits its output between defence superstructures and a civil line of snow-management vehicles, road service bodies, public-order vehicles, fire appliances, loading cranes and salt spreaders.
That civil line is not a sideline; it is what keeps the shop floor loaded between defence orders. For a European planner assessing whether Turkish artillery pricing is sustainable or promotional, the answer sits in structures like this one rather than in the prime contractor’s balance sheet.
The company is listed in the Presidency of Defence Industries product catalogue and in the OSTİM Defence and Aviation Cluster register. Development of Yavuz began in 2016; the system was shown publicly in 2017, and in June 2025 Turkish defence media reported it as field-ready on a new-generation 6×6 platform.
Frequently asked questions
Who builds the T-155 Yavuz?
MKE (Makina ve Kimya Endüstrisi) is the prime. YOL BAK designed and manufactured the vehicle superstructure as a subcontractor.
Is Yavuz comparable to CAESAR or Archer?
It belongs to the same class of wheeled 155 mm self-propelled howitzers. Published performance figures — 40 km maximum range with MOD274 ammunition, 4-6 rounds per minute, five crew — are in the same band, though each system’s fire-control and automation levels differ.
What else does YOL BAK make?
Low-to-medium altitude missile launcher platforms, armoured tactical wheeled vehicles, military containers and shelters, armoured winches, plus a civil range of snow and road-service vehicles.
Sources
- YOL BAK corporate website — howitzer superstructure and product pages (yolbak.com.tr)
- Presidency of Defence Industries, Turkish Defence Industry Product Catalogue (ssb.gov.tr)
- OSTİM Defence and Aviation Cluster member record (ostimsavunma.org)
- Savunma Hattı, “YAVUZ howitzer field-ready on new-generation 6×6 platform”, 28 June 2025
- savunmasanayi.org, MKE Yavuz T-155 truck-mounted howitzer file
Related: YOL BAK company file
