President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Türkiye’s dependency on foreign defense supplies, once as high as 70 percent, has now dropped to 30 percent.
Attending the inauguration ceremony of Roketsan’s satellite launch on August 30, President Erdoğan delivered a speech to the audience. He underlined Türkiye’s surging domestic production and falling imports in the defense industry.
“We kept ramping up our domestic production, following a policy to cease procurement of defense supplies from the international market if we can produce them domestically. In 2002, there were 62 ongoing defense projects in Türkiye. Today, that figure is verging on 700. In the past 5 years, we have launched nearly 350 projects," President Erdoğan said.
"In 2002, the total budget of the defense projects was USD 5.5 billion. Today, the project volume has jumped to USD 60 billion. During that period, the number of defense contractors has risen from 56 to 1,500. In 2002, the turnover of the defense industry was USD 1 billion, rising even higher to USD 11 billion in 2019,” stressed President Erdoğan.
Commenting on Türkiye’s ongoing defense projects, President Erdoğan further highlighted that Türkiye's first homegrown maritime missile, Atmaca, will be deployed by the Turkish Armed Forces by the end of 2020. On a different note, the President revealed that Türkiye's Micro-Satellite Launch System (MSLS) slated for completion by 2025.