The Turkish defense and aviation industry has undergone a comprehensive transformation in the last decade. with unique success achieved in recent years, Turkey today is one of the fastest growing countries in the defense and aerospace sectors. The experience and the importance given to quality by Turkish defense and aviation companies, which have undertaken many different initiatives, offer products that compete on a global scale, and play key roles in international projects, are obvious. Turkish companies are able to offer global solutions to many countries that meet their local needs with their qualified workforce and superior technology infrastructure. These Turkish companies operate in many critical areas of the defense and aviation industry, from original design development to domestic production, modernization to modification, R&D studies to international projects.
The preferred working method in the years when the infrastructure of the domestic defense industry was established was to cooperate with countries and companies that came to the forefront in the international arena and to make joint production. This approach has enabled the national defense industry to successfully carry out many defense projects such as MİLGEM warship, ALTAY main battle tank, ATAK helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Turkey, taking advantage of this experience, ANKA unmanned aerial vehicle, HURKUS light attack and armed reconnaissance aircraft Göktürk satellite, such as the lightweight class general purpose helicopters and fighter jets began to undertake local projects. In addition, projects have been initiated to develop some important subsystems and technologies to support these programs. Today, the Turkish defense industry, with the contribution of many domestic projects it has developed, has reached a highly developed position in terms of facilities, quality and competence. The Turkish defense industry both meets the needs of the Turkish Armed Forces and is among the important players in the international defense market, where high competition is experienced. In the coming years, when important national defense projects will be completed, the share of the Turkish defense industry in domestic and foreign markets will also increase.
Turkey is one of the countries with the highest defense spending high. with 19 billion US dollars in defense spending in 2018 among the world’s largest defense budgets Turkey was ranked 15th. The defense industry’s business volume has doubled in the last decade, reaching USD 8.8 billion in 2018. In parallel with the developments in the Turkish aviation and defense sector in the last decade, export and international cooperation opportunities for Turkish companies have also increased. The exports of the sector, which was 600 million USD in 2007, increased to 2.2 billion USD in 2018. Thanks to its advanced and qualified production capacity, the total amount of orders received by the sector reached USD 12.2 billion in 2018.
Turkey, over the years has also become an ideal environment for the civil aviation business. The number of passengers of the airline companies, which was 34 million in 2004, increased to 210.2 million in 2018, including 97.2 million international passengers. Airline fleet size increased from 162 to 515 between 2003 and 2018, while the number of civilian aircraft increased from 626 to 1,404. During the same period, civil aviation business volume increased from USD 2.2 billion to USD 21 billion. Turkey is committed to a center in the field of civil aviation. The new airport built in Istanbul is the largest airport in the world with a capacity of 200 million passengers per year and flights to approximately 350 destinations.
https://www.invest.gov.tr/tr/sectors/sayfalar/defense-and-aerospace.aspx
