Turkish defense industry at critical juncture
After significant progress on the domestic level, the Turkish defense industry has reached a challenging phase in which it needs to enhance its export capacity to ensure sustainable growth.
Rarely a day passes in Turkey without newspapers trumpeting another success story in the defense industry. In the past two years, in particular, the defense and aviation sectors have become rich propaganda material in a government rhetoric exalting nativism and nationalism in almost every realm.
Amid the avalanche of exaggerated praise, realistic assessments of the state of the Turkish defense industry are also available. Last week, the Defense and Aerospace Industry Manufacturers Association released its 2017 sectoral performance report, which, in a sense, is the report card of the Turkish defense industry for last year. The document paints a generally successful year, but indicates that the sector should now focus on sustaining growth, drawing a cautiously optimistic picture of the future.
According to the report — a compilation of individual figures provided by members — the sector’s turnover was nearly $6.7 billion last year, a 12% increase from 2016. In the breakdown, the biggest turnover — some $2.4 billion — came from the sale of land vehicles and systems followed by military aviation products with $1.13 billion; weapons, ammunition and missiles with $828 million; civil aviation products with $650 million; naval products with $569 million; military maintenance with $171 million; and logistics with $134 million. Another $650 million was listed under the “other” category.
Exports were worth $1.82 billion, a 6.6% decrease from 2016, including $684 million worth of final products sold to end users, with the rest intermediate products sold to foreign companies.
