Verteidigung: Die Türkei nimmt den Wettbewerb mit der westlichen Rüstungsindustrie auf

Ankara and Eskisehir - Turkey is increasing its competition with Western arms manufacturers by supplying Ukraine with a significant amount of weaponry. The package includes 70 ATACMS type artillery rockets, multiple rocket launchers, and nearly 50,000 artillery shells. These weapons, mostly of older models, originate from US production and are intended to aid Ukraine in its defense against Russia.

Turkey has been able to afford this aid as it has developed its own capable arms industry, which is steadily expanding on the international market. This development is driven and simultaneously hindered by a conflict with the United States. Financial figures illustrate Turkey's newfound self-confidence: From roughly 200 million dollars in the year 2000, armaments and aerospace exports have grown to 8.5 billion dollars in the past year.

In the first seven months of this year, they rose by more than 26 percent compared to the same period last year, totaling nearly 5.8 billion dollars. According to the Stockholm-based Peace Research Institute SIPRI, Turkey ranked eleventh among the world's largest arms exporters between 2021 and 2025. Its global market share has doubled from 0.9 percent to 1.8 percent compared to the previous five-year period.