Defence: Turkey is becoming a major exporter

Since Recep Tayyip Erdoğan came to power, the turnover of the Turkish defense industry has increased from a small billion to more than ten billion dollars. A sector driven by Turkey’s military spending : 17.7 billion dollars in 2020 (i.e. 2.8% of the country’s GDP), but also now through its exports. In 2021, they represented more than three billion dollars. Significant growth, the result of a long-term policy aimed at Turkey’s autonomy in its supply of military equipment.

Technology transfers

‘This orientation was taken after the Turkish offensive in Cyprus in 1974’, explains Sophie Lefeez, associate researcher at IRIS, specialist in defense industries: ‘The American embargo on arms deliveries to Turkey after the ‘Island invasion made Ankara realize its dependence.’ In 1985, a law came to regulate the development of Turkish defense companies. Turkey then began a process of technology transfer by producing on its soil part of the equipment it bought from foreign companies.

The Roketsan company is an example of this development policy. ‘When we were founded in 1988, the main objective was to produce American Stinger missile rocket engines, recalls Mustafa Odabaş, the sales manager of Roketsan, ‘We then developed anti-tank missiles, then guided missiles , and finally cruise missiles for our naval forces.’ Today Roketsan has 4,000 employees, and ranks 86th defense company in the world with 814 million dollars in turnover in 2021. Its missiles equip the Bayraktar TB2 drones in particular. ‘The share of our export turnover is around 22%, and we hope to reach 50% in 2025’, details Mustafa Odabaş.

Like most players in the sector, Roketsan is a private company but whose majority of shares are controlled by the Turkish state. The same goes for the equipment manufacturer Aselsan, and the aircraft manufacturer Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), the two other groups regularly ranked among the 100 largest defense companies in the world.

The challenge of autonomy

“The Turkish defense industry is winning contracts, particularly in Africa,” notes Patrice Moyeuvre, former defense attaché at the French embassy in Ankara. “The Turkish defense industry does not yet sell high-end equipment, but if Turkey persists in this political will to develop, it will eventually become a serious competitor,” judges the researcher associated with IRIS.

Since 2016, TAI has been committed to the ambitious TF-X project , a national 5th generation combat aircraft. A choice that should have been complementary to the import of American F-35s. But Ankara’s acquisition of S-400 to Russia led Washington to exclude Turkey from the program. The modernization of F-16 already in staffing in the Turkish army is also frozen, even if Joe Biden has promised to authorize it in exchange for the green light from Istanbul to the entry into NATO of Finland and Sweden .

The Turkish Air Force faces an aging fleet, as the TF-X prototype will enter service at best from 2030. ‘Turkey has never developed fighter jets of this level -the. We regularly hear in Turkish discourse that their defense industry is now 80% self-sufficient. But the remaining 20% ​​will be the hardest to acquire,” says Patrice Moyeuvre. Especially since Turkey is taking up several industrial and technological challenges head-on. In addition to a combat aircraft, it seeks to produce a long-range anti-missile system, a submarine and a tank.