Turkish Defense Industry
Year is 2022. There is no more Talking Turkey. Now, there is “The Magnificent Seven From Türkiye” to worry about. They are out there to prove their worth and so far they have replaced “Turkey” with Türkiye.
They are the leading Turkish defense industry companies, listed among the top 100 of world’s behemoths. First Turkish company entered this prestigious list in 2016. Now, there are seven of them.
Soon there will be a lot more. How many more? More importantly, what would be their socio-economic and politico-military impact! Both sides of the Atlantic will be affected.
Perhaps, the Madrid 2022 NATO Summit gave a hint. Türkiye manhandled the alliance members. The presence of these companies are part of the reason.
Surely, everyone in the know in the West were aware of this fact all throughout the past decade, but they just kicked the can around so to speak. Now, the public needs to know time!
The Magnificent Seven
In 2020, Aselsan and TUSAŞ ranked number 48th and 53rd, respectively, in the world’s top 100 defense industry company list. The other five are BMC, Roketsan, STM, FNSS, and Havelsan. They are the 89th, 91th, 92nd, 98th, and 99th companies, and in that order.
Ismail Demir, the head of the Presidency of Defense Industries in Türkiye, celebrated the news. “Progress from only 2 to 7 companies in over 4 years” is a big deal. No one knows at this time what kind of a big deal it is: More importantly, it will also become.
Next Magnificent Seven From Türkiye
Meanwhile, the next four candidates are equally formidable. MKEK, produces guns, rifles, and ammunition of sorts. Soon, it should become NATO’s biggest, the best, and the cheapest supplier. Otokar began supplying the United Nations Peacekeeping mission as early as 2012. It is part of one of the biggest industrial giants of Türkiye, employing nearly hundred thousand people: Koç Holding.
TEI indigenously develops engines for helicopters. They are built under 5t, 6t, and over 10t categories by TUSAŞ. TEI next develops jet engines for the world’s fourth fifth-generation-aircraft. With that, Türkiye will be in the same league with the US, China, and Russia.
Nurol Makina will not be behind anyone with the up and coming Ejder. It specializes advanced engineering. Alp Havacılık, Mikes, and Yonca-Onuk make up the rest for the second set of Magnificent Seven from Türkiye.
More To Come From Türkiye
There are more, in fact lot more of them like Aydın Yazılım, Milsoft, Yaltes, Kale Havacılık, Atel, Aça Otomoti̇v, HTR, Girsan, SDT, Koç Bilgi, Barış Elektrik, Meteksan Savunma, Adik Tersanesi.
A quick look at the two of the bottom feeders explains a lot how far the Turkish defense industry has come. Kale now produces engines for missiles. No need to supply them from France anymore.
SDT built a Drone Carrier for the Turkish navy. It is the first of its kind in the world. It will be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Go figure, yet, wait!
Baykar & TB-2
They Did Not Even Make The Top 25 List
Baykar, privately owned drone developer and manufacturer, practically won the war for Ukraine against Russia with its TB-2. The company never made the top 25 list in Türkiye. TB-2s also won wars in northern Iraq and Syria, Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Ethiopia.
In that regard, there is a lot more than to The Magnificent Seven from Türkiye to ponder about. The stakes must be high for their American counterparts. On the other hand, apparently no one seems to care about the defense industry in America anymore. From Lockheed Martin to Raytheon, they are all losing ground to these up and coming “Davids” from the East.
The biggest culprits for that are the US Senators, Democrats and Republicans alike. Apparently, they are clueless about lots of international dynamics. They think they know the best, and that is the worst part of it. As a result, when they try to fulfill their duty of advice and consent, they fail miserably. The drop in sales for the F-35 of Lockheed Martin and Patriot of Raytheon are two of the vivid cases of how these senators do not know what they are doing.
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“Erbil Writes Informative” is created to disseminate facts so voters can make informed decisions in 2022 and 2024. It is only a “one minute read.”
