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Turkish defense industry exports reached $4 billion by July 15, up from $3 billion in the same period last year, the Presidency of Defense Industries head Haluk Gorgun announced during a press briefing ahead of the IDEF 2025 International Defense Industry Fair.
Gorgun said Turkish defense companies signed $6 billion worth of new contracts in the first six and a half months of this year.
"As important as delivering what you deliver is producing new contracts, because this shows user satisfaction. In the first 6.5 months of this year, our companies signed $6 billion worth of contracts," Gorgun said.
The 17th International Defense Industry Fair will take place July 22-27, featuring participation from 96 countries compared to 54 countries last year.
Gorgun said Türkiye ranks 11th among defense-exporting countries and calculated that the country will be in the top 10 in a short time.
The defense industry employs approximately 95,000 people, with more than 3,500 companies operating in the sector, mostly consisting of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
"When you divide our $7.1 billion export by 95,000, there is approximately $75,000 per capita export. It's a high value-added sector," Gorgun said.
He noted that 2,000 of the more than 3,500 companies in the sector export in their field, with 54 cities in Türkiye having defense industry export capacity.
Gorgun said Turkish defense companies exported approximately 55% of their exports to NATO members and European Union countries last year.
"Türkiye has exported technological products it developed, original systems, platforms, and subsystems it produces in the defense industry to a significant extent to the US and NATO member countries," he stated.
Gorgun noted that in the first six months of this year, four of the top five countries in Türkiye's export rankings were European countries.
He said Türkiye has held 65% of the world market in armed unmanned aerial vehicles since 2018.
The fair has been extended to six days, with the first four days open only to professionals and the last two days open to both professionals and young engineers and entrepreneurs.
"We allocated approximately 20,000 people quota for Saturday and Sunday," Gorgun said.
The opening ceremony will take place outdoors with land and air vehicle parade demonstrations, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expected to attend the Tuesday opening.
Gorgun said they established a NATO-related directorate within the Presidency, aiming to increase companies' awareness of NATO member countries or NATO procurements.
Aselsan General Manager Ahmet Akyol announced three launch programs during the fair.
"On the first day of the fair, we will introduce game-changing new generation warfare systems with the participation of relevant elements of our state. On the second day, we will have our launch called 'New Guardians of the Blue Homeland', where we will have the opportunity to introduce three of our products for the first time. On the third day, we will have our ceremony called 'New Stars of the Sky Homeland,'" Akyol said.
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) General Manager Mehmet Demiroglu described TAI as "the supermarket of aviation" to foreign delegations.
"If you want a helicopter, there are both ATAK and Gokbey. If you want UAVs, there are small, medium sizes and large Aksungur. We have our 5th generation aircraft KAAN," Demiroglu said.
Roketsan General Manager Murat Ikinci said the company will display and launch six new products that have moved from R&D projects to prototype and initial testing stages.
"These six new products will be products with very high-level technological features in their fields, and will stand out from their counterparts in the world with these features," Ikinci said.
Havelsan General Manager Mehmet Akif Nacar said the company will present its artificial intelligence vision with the message "future ready."
"We will be exhibiting our ship navigation system in the field of e-Navigation for the first time at IDEF. Another innovation at IDEF will be in the simulator field. The ALTAY tank simulator using new generation VR glasses and large screens will also be featured," Nacar said.
STM General Manager Ozgur Guleryuz said this will be the IDEF with the highest number of platforms and products they have presented to date.
"At IDEF, quite a large number of new products will be introduced. In the naval field, the model of our national attack boat will be exhibited by STM for the first time," Guleryuz said.
Gorgun provided information about the Defense Industry Investment and Development Activities Support Program, saying they provide loans to SME-scale companies under more favorable conditions.
"Last year we provided support of approximately $25 million to 25 companies," he said.
He noted that 900 companies applied to the program and ₺5.7 billion ($141.2 million) in usage has been realized so far.
Gorgun said they completed last year with $7.1 billion in exports and that this year showed approximately 33% more export growth in the six-and-a-half-month period compared to the same period last year.
"The figures show that we will complete this year above last year both in exports and new contracts," he said.
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