Turkey has NATO’s largest army.
Turkey intends to play a greater role in a turbulent region and achieve independence from long-time allies in the West and relatively, the country aims to make all its own military equipment within a few years
Currently, Turkey spends around $20 billion a year on defense. Nearly half of its equipments are made domestically. Increase of defence exports has already led to mass production of a variety of defence items.
Turkey aims to expand its defense exports to total $25 billion in 2023.
Deterrent Military Force Important for Turkey
Turkish leaders are aware of the fact that Turkey cannot be the regional power or become a global power unless the country has a really deterrent military force.
Warship and fighter jet projects are in the early design phase, however they are planned to go into production by 2023.
Technology Top Priority
For Turkey, acquisition, localization and improvement of new technology is top priority. In one defence procurements regarding long-range missile system, for example, Turkey preferred China in 2013.
This move of Turkey has been closely followed by its Western allies. Especially, as Turkey’s Western allies are also worried about the compatibility of the Chinese technology with NATO systems.
Turkish Goal in Defence is to be Global Power
Turkey is a regional power. However, the country strides towards becoming one of the major global powers. Turkey aims to have its own national tank, national ship, national helicopter, satellite and war plane. This has been repeatedly mentioned by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The ultimate goal of Turkey, as Erdoğan puts it, is “to have everything the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have”.
Three Turkish companies are already among top 100 global defence companies. Turkish companies with potential of improvement in arms industry are sorted out and guided by Turkish Ministry of Defence.
Anti-terrorism and trans-border operations have exhibited the necessity and importance of private arms industry.
We know that there have been rigorous innovative developments in Turkish private arms industry in the last decade.
One article appeared in Financial Times had made following evaluations regarding Turkish arms industry:
“Many countries have tried to use offset programmes to create an indigenous defence industry, but Turkey is one of the closest to succeeding. Despite persistent doubts about the efficiency of the country’s defence industry and the realism of its ambition to be self sufficient, Turkey’s 30-year journey has yielded an indigenous capability other developing countries are still far from matching.” (FT)
It is true that Turkish arms industry is still still young, compared to global powers. However the Turkish defense industry is gaining the ability to tackle big projects, and it aims a place alongside its biggest NATO allies, the United States, France and Britain, as well as Russia and China.
Article by Ahmed Necip YILDIRIM
