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Türkiye is close to breaking into the ranks of the world's top 10 defense exporters, driven by growing international trust in domestically developed military platforms, the head of the country's Defense Industries Secretariat (SSB) said Thursday.
Haluk Gorgun, secretary of the SSB, made the remarks at an event marking the agency's second anniversary in Ankara, where he credited the sector's rise to a young, highly skilled workforce and sustained investment in emerging technologies.
Gorgun said the international success of Turkish-made defense platforms was fueling demand abroad, with the SSB and affiliated companies now hosting dozens of foreign delegations each week as more countries seek to purchase Turkish military equipment. The SSB oversees the development, procurement and export of Türkiye's defense and aerospace programs.
He attributed much of the sector's growth to its human capital, noting that the average age of defense industry employees in Türkiye is 34, while some companies with roughly $1 billion in revenue have workforces averaging under 30 years old.
"Thanks to its young and skilled workforce, Türkiye is ready to meet the needs of its allies for decades to come," Gorgun said.
Gorgun pointed to the National Competency Initiative, a framework approved in 2024 at a defense meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as the human resources and competency component of the country's broader national resilience strategy.
He said newer fields, including artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, space exploration and cybersecurity, had become decisive to national security. "We're determined to be one of the pioneers in this great technological race, since after all, foreign dependence for critical technologies could spell a silent transfer of sovereignty," he said.
According to Gorgun, the initiative has reached about 500,000 people across seven target groups, from high school students to industry executives, through a development model comprising 11 programs.
He said the initiative engaged 2,541 students over five semesters and included 7,000 vocational and technical high school students from 13 schools across 12 cities. The Defense Industry Campus Program, he added, was implemented in eight cities with 3,000 participants, while university modules offered 288 courses to 4,991 students.
Career and competency meetings were held with a total of 111,000 people, Gorgun said, and the Defense Career Platform has brought together around 290,000 users and 339 companies. The platform has delivered about 665 training sessions totaling more than 158,000 hours to over 73,000 users, he said.
Gorgun said Erdogan's vision of full independence for the Turkish defense industry remained "the strongest pillar" supporting the sector's strategic planning.
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