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Turkish defense company Aselsan increased its revenue by 25% in the first half of 2026 to ₺88.5 billion ($1.8 billion) and secured about $4.9 billion in new contracts, General Manager Ahmet Akyol said, adding that the company's Ogulbey facility is set to become Europe's largest air defense plant.
Akyol made the comments on a CNBC-e program discussing the company's first-half financial results, order outlook, investments, defense projects and technology activities.
Akyol said Aselsan's investment in the Ogulbey facility in Ankara will begin generating value during this period. He said Ogulbey will become Europe's largest air defense facility and that infrastructure for quantum technologies is also being built at the site.
Akyol said Aselsan designs and produces military chips, with more than 500 employees working in that area.
Akyol said localization efforts in the defense industry have accelerated over the past 20 years and that Aselsan will continue its investments in this area.
"We will continue our breakthroughs in the defense industry," he said.
Discussing the company's first-half performance, Akyol said the 25% revenue growth marked one of its strongest growth performances in recent years.
"We achieved the strongest revenue growth of recent times, at 25% in the first half," he said.
Growth in dollar terms reached an even higher level, Akyol said.
"There are few peer companies that have seen 37% growth in dollar terms," he said.
On the order side, Akyol said the company secured about $5 billion in new orders in the first six months of the year. "We are in a very serious ordering period; we secured nearly $5 billion in new orders in the first six months," he said.
Akyol said productivity has also increased, noting, "Our productivity is rising; you could say Aselsan is changing scale."
He said the company had realized about 35% of its full-year revenue target in the first half and expects the second half to be stronger, saying, "We realized approximately 35% of our projected revenue in the first half, and the second half will be stronger."
Akyol said the EBITDA margin also improved, rising 120 basis points. He said the company made $323 million in infrastructure investment in the first half of the year, an amount close to its full investment for all of last year, and that investment activity is continuing.
Production volume has also increased significantly, Akyol said.
"This year we are delivering 400,000 products to end users," he said.
He said the company has roughly doubled across all metrics compared with three years ago, adding, "We are reaching in six months the figures we used to reach in a year."
Despite rising investment, Akyol said the company's financial leverage indicators improved, saying, "Despite our investment mobilization, our net debt/EBITDA figures improved."
Asked about Aselsan's capital structure, Akyol said the company has no plans for a new public offering or share sale. "We have no plans for a new IPO or share sale on our agenda," he said.
Akyol said the first-half data also points to the company's growth performance in Europe, calling Aselsan one of the fastest-growing companies on the continent.
Discussing the outlook for backlog orders, Akyol said that if ongoing negotiations are finalized, Aselsan could reach $30 billion in backlog orders for the first time in its history.
"Our ongoing negotiations will, for the first time in its history, push (the company) to the $30 billion backlog order range this year," he said.
Akyol said backlog orders both in Türkiye and abroad have increased, and that delivery times for products have also improved significantly.
He said the time to field a product has been reduced from 48 months to 28 months.
Discussing Aselsan's contribution to NATO, Akyol said the company develops products and systems geared toward current defense needs.
"Aselsan is now delivering what everyone is talking about, and it's making a major contribution to NATO," he said.
Akyol said a significant portion of the company's resources is allocated to unmanned systems, and that investment in deterrent strike capabilities has also increased.
"Aselsan is a technology company, and we will continue on this path," he said.
On the company's civilian technology activities, Akyol said Aselsan operates 450,000 cameras across Türkiye.
He said the company is also working on railway technologies, with signaling solutions that have eliminated foreign dependency in that area. Akyol said Aselsan also produces the electronic components for train systems manufactured by TURASAS.
Aselsan separately disclosed its first-half 2026 financial results, adjusted for inflation accounting, in a filing to Türkiye's Public Disclosure Platform (KAP).
According to the filing, Aselsan, described as Türkiye's most valuable company, sustained its growth through strong operational performance, rising technology investments and disciplined financial management.
Key first-half 2026 figures, according to the filing:
Aselsan signed a total of $4.9 billion in new contracts in the first six months of 2026, a 72% increase and the highest first-half volume in the company's history, according to the KAP filing.
New orders were concentrated in air defense, radar, electronic warfare and public-safety communications systems.
The company's backlog orders rose 45% year-over-year to $23.2 billion in the first half, following 2025, when backlog orders surpassed $20 billion for the first time, according to the filing. The book-to-bill ratio reached 2.5, above the industry average.
Aselsan's R&D spending rose 41% year-over-year to $804 million in the first half, with accelerated investment in high-barrier fields including low-earth-orbit satellite technologies, quantum computing, underwater systems, propulsion systems, microelectronics, laser technologies and long-range guided munitions.
Investment tied to capacity expansion at the Ogulbey Technology Base and existing facilities rose 195% in the period.
In the first half, the company brought online new production and test centers for smart munitions, air defense and underwater systems spanning 17,360 square meters of enclosed space, completed with a $40 million investment.
The first phase of the Ogulbey Technology Base, described in the filing as the largest single defense-industry investment in the history of the Turkish Republic, is planned to become operational in the third quarter of 2026.
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