Türkiye's defense and aerospace exports climbed 47.1% over the past year to $10.9 billion, and more than half of that went to its NATO allies, days before it hosts the alliance's leaders in Ankara.
In the 12 months to 31 May 2026, the sector sold to 178 countries, up from $7.4 billion the year before, according to figures compiled by Anadolu Ajansı. Sales to NATO members reached $6.2 billion, 57.3% of the total, and the three largest markets were all allies.
The jump caps a longer climb. Reuters reported in June that Türkiye's defense exports have roughly tripled since 2021, to around $10 billion, as Europe rearms and Ankara signs deals country by country across the alliance. The combat drones led by Baykar's Bayraktar line remain the industry's signature, but the export list now runs from armored vehicles and missiles to warships and small arms.
What Türkiye ships sits high up the value chain. Its defense and aerospace exports are worth about $65 per kilogram, against $1.62 for the country's exports overall, roughly 40 times more, a sign of how much of the price is engineering rather than raw material. Ankara increasingly sells the know-how as well, striking joint-production and technology deals alongside the finished systems, work coordinated through the Defense Industries Secretariat.
The road is not open everywhere. Reuters noted that Türkiye still meets barriers inside the European Union, where some members limit arms sales to it, and Ankara has largely routed around them with government-to-government agreements.
The timing is pointed. NATO's leaders gather in Ankara on 7 and 8 July, and the alliance's secretary-general, Mark Rutte, has spent the run-up praising the host: he called Türkiye one of NATO's strongest and best-equipped militaries, with what he described as a huge defense-industry advantage. The export figures put numbers under the compliment.
The summit doubles as a showroom. Türkiye's Defense Industries Secretariat will host a reception at Turkish Aerospace Industries in Kahramankazan, near Ankara, as part of the NATO Summit Defense Industry Forum 2026, with its head, Haluk Görgün, as host. Turkish systems go on display, and indigenous aircraft fly demonstration sorties for the military and industry guests.
Baykar got a head start on the pitch. Chairman Selçuk Bayraktar briefed a NATO Parliamentary Assembly delegation and Turkish parliament speaker Numan Kurtulmuş at the Özdemir Bayraktar National Technology Center in Istanbul on Thursday, on KIZILELMA, the company's unmanned fighter. There are roughly 15,000 fighter jets in the world, he said, and unmanned aircraft will replace all of them, probably within 30 years. A pilot takes about 10 years to train and is the most expensive part of any fighter, he added, and KIZILELMA carries none. He also pointed to a genocide a few hundred kilometers away that no institution was moving to stop.
The reach now runs into Europe's own aerospace history. Baykar completed its purchase of Italy's Piaggio Aerospace, a firm dating to 1884, on 30 June 2025. One year in, it says it beat its first-year targets: a workforce of 677 against a pledged 675, more cash injected than the whole multi-year plan foresaw, and a relaunched P.180 Avanti, now the Avanti NX, aiming for 20 to 25 aircraft a year. Piaggio also builds components for the F-35's F135 engine. "One year on, we have kept the promise, and gone further," said Haluk Bayraktar, Baykar's CEO and Piaggio's chairman.
When the alliance sits down in Ankara next week, its host will be one of its arms suppliers, and increasingly one of its aircraft builders, too.