Türkiye’s Defence and Aerospace Exports Rise 61% to $1.14 Billion in October
Türkiye’s defence and aerospace exports rose 61% year on year to $1.14 billion in October 2026, Prof. Dr. Haluk Görgün, President of the Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB), said on Tuesday 3 November. Exports for January–October reached $8.05 billion, 21% higher than a year earlier.
- October 2026: defence and aerospace exports of $1.14 billion, up 61% on October 2025 (SSB President Haluk Görgün; TİM puts the rise at 61.1%)
- January–October 2026: $8.05 billion, up 21% on the same period of 2025
- Last 12 months: $11.36 billion, up 37%
- Defence and aerospace was the fastest-growing of Türkiye’s export sectors in October, according to the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM)
- No breakdown by company, product or buyer country was published
What SSB and TİM published
Görgün released the figures on his official X account at 12:10 Istanbul time with an SSB graphic (@halukgorgun). Besides the monthly and ten-month totals, he said exports over the last 12 months had grown 37% to $11.36 billion. He thanked the companies, engineers and technicians in the sector and said Türkiye was taking its national technologies to international markets under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s leadership.
The October data were announced in Istanbul the same day by Trade Minister Ömer Bolat and Mustafa Gültepe, chairman of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM). In TİM’s release, Gültepe listed defence and aerospace first among the five sectors with the biggest export growth in October, at 61.1% (TİM). Türkiye’s total goods exports for the month were $25.9 billion, up 8.1%; 13 sectors grew and 13 shrank.
What the numbers do and do not show
The monthly figures are a sector total. Neither SSB nor TİM said which companies, products or customer countries drove October’s jump, so we are not attributing it to any single programme or deal.
Exports and contracts are also different measures. Export statistics record goods as they are shipped, while companies announce contracts when they are signed. ASELSAN’s $1.1 billion air defence export contract, disclosed to Borsa İstanbul’s KAP platform on the same morning (our report), is a new order; it adds to the order book and will show up in export data only as deliveries take place.
How October compares with 2025
October is a strong month but not the sector’s best. In January 2026 Görgün said December 2025 exports had exceeded $2.5 billion, the highest monthly figure on record, and that 2025 closed at $10.054 billion: $9.87 billion of goods and $184 million of defence services, about 48% more than the $7.1 billion of 2024. He put new export contracts signed in 2025 at $17.8 billion (Anadolu Agency report of his remarks). With two months of 2026 left, the ten-month total of $8.05 billion compares with $9.87 billion of goods exports for the whole of 2025.
Industry context
SSB coordinates Türkiye’s major defence procurement and export-support programmes. The sector’s best-known exports include Baykar’s Bayraktar TB2 and Akıncı drones, armoured vehicles from Otokar, FNSS and Nurol Makina, naval vessels and ASELSAN electronics, but the official monthly data do not split the total by product. Many Turkish platforms still use imported subsystems, engines in particular, while localisation programmes are under way. For an overview of the companies and programmes, see our guide to the defence industry of Türkiye.
Sources: Prof. Dr. Haluk Görgün, official X account, 3 November 2026; Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) October 2026 export release; Anadolu Agency report of Görgün’s 2025 export remarks, 3 January 2026; ASELSAN KAP disclosure, 3 November 2026.
