Turkish defense industry expects new contracts to reach $20 bln by year-end

BURSA

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Türkiye’s defense and aerospace sector has signed $15 billion worth of new contracts so far in 2026 and expects that figure to rise to $20 billion by the end of the year, says Haluk Görgün, head of Türkiye’s Presidency of Defense Industries.

Speaking at the Subcontracting and Supply Management Workshop in the Defense and Aerospace Sector in Bursa, Görgün noted that the sector’s main contractors, including ASELSAN, ROKETSAN, TUSAŞ, HAVELSAN and STM, have worked with more than 16,000 domestic companies over the past three years and have placed orders exceeding $20 billion with those firms.

According to Görgün, the value of outstanding domestic orders currently exceeds $13.4 billion.

He also said the increase in defense exports has significantly outpaced Türkiye’s overall export growth, adding that the sector’s export value per kilogram is 40 times higher than the national average.

The defense and aerospace industry exports increased 15.6 percent year-on-year to $6.93 billion in the January-September period, accounting for 3.28 percent of the country’s total exports, data from the Türkiye Exporters’ Assembly (TİM) showed earlier this month.

In September alone, defense and aerospace exports climbed 10.7 percent year-on-year to $634.1 million. The sector accounted for 2.44 percent of the country’s total exports.

Over the past 12 months, defense and aerospace exports reached $10.94 billion, marking a 29.9 percent year-on-year increase and representing 3.86 percent of Türkiye’s total exports.