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Turkish defense giant Aselsan has signed a $1.1 billion export contract with an international customer for the sale of air defense systems, the company said in a filing to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) on Tuesday.
The Nov. 3 filing did not name the customer or its country.
The contract is the latest in a string of air defense deals for Aselsan, which has recently signed contracts with the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) for long-range and hybrid air defense systems and with Roketsan for subcomponents.
Export contracts announced in October covered the overseas sale of radar, counter-drone, command-and-control, and other defense systems.
In the first nine months of 2026, Aselsan's new export contracts rose 34% to $1.9 billion, and total new orders reached $14 billion, the company said. Its order backlog surpassed $30 billion for the first time in its history.
Revenue rose 28% to ₺151.5 billion ($3.03 billion) in the January-September period, while Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) rose 38% to ₺40.6 billion ($812 million), with the margin up 190 basis points to 26.8%.
The book-to-bill ratio climbed to 4.4 in the third quarter.
Investments rose 228% to $684 million, and research and development spending increased 36%to $1.3 billion. The first phase of the Ogulbey Technology Base, described as the largest single defense industry investment in the history of the Republic, began operations.
"We have moved beyond meeting today’s needs. We are building today the capacity that will respond to tomorrow’s demands. We are moving toward a faster, more efficient Aselsan that is stronger in global competition," General Manager Ahmet Akyol recently stated.
"In the first three quarters of this year, we made almost twice the investment we made last year," he said, noting, "We do not wait for orders to outpace our capacity. We turn orders into capacity, and capacity into the future."
Akyol said the company’s dollar-based third-quarter growth rose from 18% in 2024 and 29% in 2025 to 42% this year. Aselsan rose three places to 40th on the Defense News Top 100 list and became the first Turkish defense firm on the Forbes Global 2000, he said.
He also highlighted ASTRALINK, Aselsan's low-Earth-orbit satellite communications project, saying it "attracted intense interest from the international community."
"Our goal is clear: to make Aselsan one of the world’s leading defense technology companies and strong global technology brands," Akyol said.
The $1.1 billion deal further expands Aselsan's air defense export portfolio.
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