DEFENSE AND AVIATION EXPORTS EXCEED USD 3BN: ERDOGAN

The 15th International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF’21), one of the world’s four largest defense tradeshows where Turkish military and technology products are exhibited, was held on August 17-20 with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The event hosted 1,236 firms and representatives from Turkey and abroad. “The number of defense industry projects have exceeded 750 today, compared to 62 in 2002,” said Erdogan. “Their budget rose from USD 5.5bn to over USD 75bn. The number of defense companies climbed from 56 to 500 while their annual turnover increased from USD 1bn to USD 11bn.” Turkey reduced its foreign dependency in the sector from 80% to 20%, according to Erdogan. “The budget allocated by the sector for R&D rose from USD 49m to over USD 1.5bn. Turkey’s defense and aviation exports, which failed to hit USD 250m for quite a while, has now exceeded USD 3bn,” he added. Presidency of Defense Industries and Teknopark Istanbul initiated the country’s first and only ‘Cyber Security Acceleration and Incubation Program’ during the event. Representatives of ASELSAN, Turkish Aerospace Inc. (TUSAS), ROKETSAN, HAVELSAN, TUSAS Engine Industries, and BMC signed the agreement and relevant protocols to start the program.