Manufacturing

Turkish arms exports up 19% year on year

December 5, 2024, 3:46 PM

Exports to November at $5.8bn
Defence firms climb listings
Arms imports crash

Turkish defence companies have posted another record-breaking year for exports, with a 19 percent increase year on year and sales to 178 countries.

Sales from January to November this year have already eclipsed 2023’s total of arms and equipment shipments to overseas clients, reflecting the arms industry’s technical developments and broader product range.

Defence and aviation exports to the end of November totalled $5.76 billion, the Secretariat of Defence Industries (SSB) said this week.

The 11-month total easily exceeded the previous full year record set in 2023 of $5.5 billion. November exports of $637 million, a 32 percent rise on the same month last year, suggest Turkish defence sales could finish the year well past $6.5 billion.

The head of the SSB, Haluk Görgün, said the latest results showed that Turkey had become a major player in the global defence industry, with further advances to come.

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“The agency will continue its international activities that embrace both large-scale companies and SMEs, increase the number of exporting companies, and make exports the anchor of sustainability for the entire sector,” he said.

The SSB data came out the same day as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) issued a report ranking the leading 100 military technology producers worldwide, with three Turkish firms on the list.

While the three, the drone and aviation company Baykar, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) and the land-sea-air defence systems producer Aselsan, had appeared on previous SIPIR “top 100” lists, all saw their ranking increase.

Baykar and TAI both climbed 10 places on the SIPIR table, to 69^th and 78^th respectively, while Aselsan claimed 54^th spot.

Turkey is still a big importer of defence technology, having recently reached agreement with both the US and a European consortium to buy new F-16s and Eurofighters to upgrade its air force capabilities.

But years of investment in its domestic defence industries are paying off, both in terms of increased self-sufficiency and export potential.

Restrictions

The country has reduced its dependency on imports to stock its arsenal from a high of 80 percent some 25 years ago, to 20 percent, while boosting export earnings from arms sales from $248 million two decades ago to the present level.

One reason behind Turkey’s rise as a military technology manufacturer was the restrictions placed by some of its allies on providing equipment to Ankara, according to Ömer Özkızılcık, a defence analyst and non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council.

“As delays and obstacles were placed to Turkey’s purchasing of weaponry, it put its trust in its self-capability and it took a political decision that diminished its reliance on other countries,” he told AGBI.

By producing technology and weapons systems that are compatible with Nato standards, unlike Chinese or Russian products, and by not imposing political conditions on arms sales, Turkey has been able to build its military technology development into an export success, Özkızılcık said.