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Türkiye’s defense and aviation exports surpassed the full-year total for 2024 as of November, putting the sector on course to cap 2025 with a figure that would mark more than a two-and-a-half-fold increase in just five years.
The strongest year to date reaffirms rising global demand for Turkish-made military systems and comes as Türkiye ramps up defense industry production to further cut dependence on foreign providers.
Exports rose by 22% in November to $747 million, lifting the year-to-date amount to nearly $7.45 billion, the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) said on Thursday.
The 11-month total marks a 30% increase from last year and already exceeds the record $7.2 billion achieved in the whole of 2024.
“With this momentum, our sector broke a new record, not only with the increase in November but also with its performance throughout the year. Our export figures, achieved in just 11 months, surpassed all-time annual figures,” SSB head Haluk Görgün said.
Görgün said the strong performance reflects the sector’s sustained growth in high-value-added products, an expansion of export volumes and rising competitiveness in global markets.
The industry is now widely expected to reach – and likely exceed – $8 billion as of the end of the year. Officials previously said shipments would “easily” surpass that level, which would represent a more than 250% jump from $2.28 billion in 2020.
That would mean exports grew at an average annual rate of nearly 30% per year between 2020 and 2025.
Years of investment have helped Türkiye evolve from a country heavily reliant on foreign defense systems to one where domestically developed platforms meet almost all of its needs.
For much of the past two decades, Ankara has expressed frustration over its Western allies’ failure to provide adequate defense systems against missile threats despite Türkiye being a NATO member.
The transformation since the early 2000s has driven the development of a broad range of homegrown air, land and naval platforms, reducing foreign dependency from around 80% to below 20% today.
The capabilities of its defense platforms, led by its combat drones, helped it seal billions of dollars’ worth of deals in recent years.
The latest export figures came shortly after a Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report showed Türkiye added another company to the world’s top 100 weapons-producing companies.
The inclusion of Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) raised the number of Turkish firms in the ranking to five. SIPRI said combined revenues of Aselsan, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), Baykar, Roketsan and MKE rose 11% in 2024 to $10.1 billion.
More than 3,500 firms operate in the Turkish defense industry, boasting a workforce of about 100,000.SSB’s Görgün says the goal is to increase the number of exporting companies, integrate small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into global supply chains and develop a sustainable and high-value-added export model.
The export unit value in the sector reached around $67 per kilogram as of 2024 and can reach $20,000 to $50,000 for some products, Görgün said earlier. That compares to Türkiye’s general export average of approximately $1.5 per kilogram.
“Türkiye continues its path with determination with a strong ecosystem that produces, develops and exports in the defense industry,” he said.
