Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir, President of Defence Industry Agency has shared that Turkish defence and aerospace industry achieved a revenue more than $10 billion in 2021. Prof. Dr. Demir held a speech on 4th Defence Industry Meetings, organized by Istanbul Chamber of Industry and SAHA Istanbul on 17 May, announcing certain metrics on the sector for the first time.
Prof. Dr. Demir has expressed the following statements: “In 2021, Turkish defence and aerospace industry broke $10 billion line for its revenue, recovering to pre-pandemic levels. The new orders our sector received increased by 40 percent compared to previous year, reaching $9 billion. Our R&D investments also saw a great increase, 32 percent, reaching $1,6 billion. We aim to increase these numbers further for this year as well.
We can proudly say that the entire world pays attention to our defence industry products. Our country has become a global actor rather than just a market for defence industry, with the greatest indicator of this transformation being our exports. Now, 170 countries are using our defence industry products, while 228 different products are being exported, mainly UAVs and UCAVs, land vehicles, and naval platforms. We could not break quarter of a billion dollars 20 years ago, but in 2021 our sector enjoyed more than $3,2 billion of export revenue, quite literally a record. This year we expect to surpass $4 billion for exports. The average Turkish export brings only $1.5 per kilogram, while our defence industry achieves $70 per kilogram. This is yet another indicator clearly showing just how precious our defence industry is.”