SAHA 2026, the International Defense, Aerospace and Space Industry Fair, opened at Istanbul Expo Center, bringing together more than 1,700 companies from over 120 countries.
Organized by SAHA Istanbul, the fair will run until May 9 and feature product launches, signing ceremonies, business meetings and displays by Türkiye’s leading defense companies.
The opening ceremony was attended by Defense Minister Yaşar Güler, Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır, Defense Industries President Haluk Görgün and SAHA Istanbul Chairman Haluk Bayraktar.
Güler said recent conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war and the war involving the United States, Israel and Iran, had deeply affected regional and global security architecture.
“These conflicts and wars have provided very critical data for security doctrine, while also increasing our responsibilities,” Güler said.
He said Türkiye, which had largely been a supplier-dependent country in defense industry until the 1980s, had become a country capable of designing, producing and exporting its own systems.
“The Turkish defense industry must preserve serial production capacity at a level that can also meet the needs of its friends, while combining it with mobilization flexibility,” Güler said.
He added that Türkiye should accelerate work on unmanned aerial vehicles, armed drones, autonomous naval and land platforms, space, cyber warfare and electronic warfare capabilities.
Güler also held meetings with Somali Defense Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi, Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Lt. Gen. Rodolphe Haykal and Iraqi Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Harbiye on the sidelines of the fair.
Kacır said Türkiye’s NATO-standard production infrastructure allowed Turkish defense products to be integrated quickly into allied platforms.
Over the past 23 years, Türkiye’s incentive system paved the way for 1,112 defense industry investments worth 460 billion Turkish Liras, Kacır said.
“With the new industrial zones we are designing as mega industrial regions, we will spread defense industry production across a wider geography and create new defense industry clusters in Anatolia,” he said.
Görgün said Türkiye had exported $10.5 billion in defense and aerospace products to 185 countries over the past 12 months.
“We put our power at the service of stability, not chaos. We see our technology not as a tool of tension, but as a guarantee of peace and security,” Görgün said.
He said Türkiye aimed to exceed $11 billion in defense and aerospace exports and enter the world’s top 10 countries in the sector.
Bayraktar said the war in Ukraine had shown that modern warfare was shaped by the combination of technology and industrial production capacity.
“The 127-fold increase in drone use on the field is the clearest proof that military doctrines are now being rewritten around autonomous systems,” he said. “Türkiye is not only a witness to this change, but one of its strongest pioneers.”
The fair also included the launch of new systems by the Defense Ministry’s R&D Center and Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation.
Güler attended a presentation where Yıldırımhan, an intercontinental ballistic missile project, was introduced.
The project was presented with a range of 6,000 kilometers, liquid nitrogen tetroxide fuel and four rocket propulsion engines.
According to the presentation, the missile is designed to reach speeds between Mach 9 and Mach 25 and to limit the opposing side’s early warning and interception capabilities through a combination of speed and maneuverability.
Baykar introduced three strategic products at SAHA EXPO 2026: the K2 kamikaze UAV, Mızrak smart loitering munition and Sivrisinek loitering munition.
The company said Mızrak has a range of more than 1,000 kilometers and a payload capacity of over 40 kilograms, while K2 is designed for swarm operations and Sivrisinek combines reconnaissance and strike capabilities.
STM unveiled its long-range kamikaze UAV system KUZGUN, which is designed for cross-border operations and targets behind enemy lines.
The system can take off from mobile land platforms or fixed launchers with rocket-assisted takeoff and has a stated range of more than 1,000 kilometers.
ASELSAN displayed new naval unmanned systems, including KILIÇ, Türkiye’s first kamikaze autonomous underwater vehicle, and TUFAN, a kamikaze unmanned surface vehicle designed to operate in swarm formations.
Pasifik Teknoloji also announced a framework agreement to export 100,000 FPV kamikaze UAVs to an unnamed allied country.
Pasifik Teknoloji Executive Board Chairman Aykut Ferah said the agreement covered 100,000 MERKÜT FPV kamikaze UAV systems, 10 ALPİN unmanned helicopters, 25 DUMRUL mini unmanned helicopters, 500 DELİ tactical kamikaze systems and 500 KORGAN autonomous ground support and observation units.
