Türkiye Shifts From Arms Buyer to Exporter as SSB Marks 41 Years

Marking the founding of the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) on Nov. 7, 1985, Prof. Dr. Haluk Görgün presents the agency’s history as a move away from dependence on foreign suppliers toward national design, production and export.

“We have come from a Türkiye that once only procured, to a Türkiye that today designs, develops, produces, integrates and exports,” Görgün says in a written statement issued for the anniversary.

He credits the results to strong institutions, skilled personnel and a culture of joint work. “This, then, is the story of 41 years: the story of the great transformation between these two pictures,” he says.

According to Görgün, Türkiye now meets most of its defense and security needs with its own engineering and production capabilities and offers the solutions it develops to friendly and allied countries.

From Procurement to National Design

The institution began in 1985 as the Defense Industry Development and Support Administration. It became the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries in 1989 and, in 2018, the Presidency of Defense Industries attached to the Turkish presidency.

Until the 1990s, SSB says, Türkiye met its needs mainly through off-the-shelf purchases from abroad. Joint production models came to the fore in the 1990s, before procurement based on indigenous design and original development gained ground.

The statement identifies a 2004 meeting of the Defense Industry Executive Committee, chaired by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as a key turning point in that shift.

Görgün says the local content rate in the sector rose from around 20% in 2002 to more than 80% today. He lists unmanned aerial vehicles, national warships, air-defense systems and electronic warfare technologies among the areas where Türkiye has gained original capabilities.

A Model Other Countries Study

Görgün argues that SSB has evolved from a body that simply procured weapons into one that coordinates technology development, production, industrialization and exports as a whole.

“Our Presidency of Defense Industries is not only an institution that carries out procurement,” he says. “It is a distinctive institutional structure, rarely seen elsewhere in the world, that brings together requirement authorities, public institutions, the private sector and universities around common goals, and coordinates every process from R&D to design and from production to export.”

“That this model is now being taken as an example by different countries is an important indicator of our 41 years of institutional accumulation and the level our defense industry ecosystem has reached,” he adds.

From 62 Projects to About 1,500

The figures released with the statement trace the scale of that change. In 2002, 56 companies were active in the sector and 62 projects were under way, according to SSB. Today more than 4,000 firms operate in the ecosystem and the number of projects is about 1,500.

Total project volume, which stood at about $5.5 billion in 2002, now exceeds $100 billion, a figure that includes projects still at the tender stage.

Sector turnover rose from about $1.1 billion in 2002 to around $25 billion, SSB says, while annual research and development spending climbed from $49 million to more than $3.5 billion.

Employment has grown with the project portfolio. The agency puts sector employment at about 81,000 in 2022 and above 135,000 today, with a target of 158,000 by 2028. The statement’s summary separately refers to direct employment exceeding 100,000.

Exports Grow About 40-Fold

Defense and aerospace exports were $248 million in 2002. They reached $10.054 billion in 2025, an increase of roughly 40 times, according to the statement.

Growth has continued in 2026. October exports rose 61% from a year earlier to $1.14 billion, bringing the January–October total to $8.05 billion. Exports over the 12 months to the end of October reached $11.357 billion.

SSB says defense and aerospace exports over the past 14 years total about $55 billion as of the end of October 2026. More than $30 billion of that was recorded in 2023–2026, giving those four years a share of more than 55%.

The agency says Turkish defense products are preferred in markets with high quality and technology standards, led by NATO member states, strengthening the sector’s international position. That trend has fed debate over Türkiye’s role in European security as Washington scales back, even as key programs such as the KAAN fighter still rely on U.S.-made F110 engines.

‘No Task Is Unimportant’

Görgün also emphasizes the people behind the programs. Every successful project, he says, depends on the joint efforts of many employees, from needs analysis and design to contracts, testing and delivery.

“No task is unimportant, no effort is invisible,” he says, describing the principle the agency works by.

He adds that the sector’s success draws not only on technological products but on the knowledge, experience and labor of thousands of people working toward the same goal, and that passing SSB’s 41 years of experience to future generations is a shared responsibility.

Görgün says the agency will keep pursuing the goal of a fully independent defense industry with greater achievements and a spirit of joint work.