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

Ankara and Eskisehir have witnessed Turkey's growing competition with the Western arms industry. The country has recently supplied Ukraine with a comprehensive package of 70 ATACMS artillery rockets, multiple rocket launchers, and nearly 50,000 artillery shells. These older weapons, manufactured in the United States, are intended to aid Ukraine in its defense against Russia.

Turkey possesses the financial capacity for this delivery, as it has developed its own robust arms industry that is expanding into the international market. This development is both propelled and restrained by a conflict with the United States. The country's newfound confidence is evident in the numbers: from just over 200 million dollars in 2000, Turkey's defense and aerospace exports have surged to 8.5 billion dollars last year.

In the first seven months of this year, they climbed further, up more than 26 percent compared to the previous year, reaching nearly 5.8 billion dollars. According to the Stockholm-based Peace Research Institute SIPRI, Turkey ranks 11th among the world's largest arms exporters between 2021 and 2025, doubling its global market share from 0.9 percent to 1.8 percent.