The Turkish defense industry has exported 228 products to 170 countries in several geographies within the past ten years, Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) Chairperson Ismail Demir said on Saturday.
“When we look at the point our defense industry has reached in the last 20 years, as Turkey has made progress in every field, the numbers show this fact much better,” Demir said at the Global Strategies in Defense and Aerospace Industry Conference in the Antalya province.
“While only 62 defense projects were carried out nearly 20 years ago, today this number has exceeded 750. About half of these projects have been launched in the last 5 years.”
“While defense projects with a budget of $5.5 billion were carried out, the project volume of approximately $60 billion has been reached with an increase of approximately 11 times at the point we have reached,” he added.
Saying that the defense and aerospace exports increased by 40% in the first 11 months of this year compared to the same month of the previous year, reaching $2.794 billion,” Demir said: “We expect to complete 2021 with an export of over $3 billion.”
Turkey’s defense industry has been developing in leaps and bounds in recent years with local production while the companies eye opportunities to expand their revenues with new export deals. Demir himself has recently played up the great potential of Turkey’s defense industry.
The country is in the process of rolling out new defense industry products and developing already existing ones with new sophisticated systems with the number of countries interested gaining pace.