Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested that Turkey faced obstacles from “friends and allies” as it advanced its domestic defence industry.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the launch of the Sancar unmanned surface vehicle developed by HAVELSAN, as well as the foundation-laying of a simulator production and integration facility and the inauguration of a naval operations management centre, Mr Erdogan said Turkey had reached its current level of defence development “with patience and determination, despite the barriers placed before us by those we knew as friends and allies”.
‘No designs on anyone’s territory’
The Turkish leader insisted that Ankara harbours no territorial ambitions.
“We have no designs on a single inch of anyone’s land,” he said, adding that Turkey aims to contribute to regional peace while strengthening deterrence in both the “Sky Homeland” and the “Blue Homeland” — references to its airspace and maritime doctrine.
Defence dependence cut from 80% to 20%
Erdogan said foreign dependence in Turkey’s defence industry had been reduced from 80% to 20%, and announced that Ankara is seeking to rank among the world’s top ten countries in defence and aerospace exports by 2028.
He highlighted what he described as the “3T” model — detection, diagnosis and strike — arguing that deterrence “is not measured solely by the number of platforms”, but also by software capabilities, secure data flow, uninterrupted communications and cyber resilience. “Digital sovereignty,” he said, is an integral part of national security.
According to figures he cited, defence and aerospace exports rose by 48% in 2025, surpassing $10 billion, compared with $248 million in 2002. The target, he added, is to reach $11 billion in exports by 2028.
Bayraktar TB3 ‘made history’ in NATO drill
Erdogan also referred to a recent NATO exercise, noting that the Bayraktar TB3 unmanned aerial vehicle successfully landed on the TCG Anadolu in adverse weather conditions after flying for eight hours and covering 1,700 kilometres — a feat he claimed “made history”.