Demir was speaking at the 4th Defense Industry Meetings organized by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO) and the Defense and Aviation Cluster (SAHA) Istanbul, where he attended via videoconference.
Speaking about the activities of the SSB, Demir stated that while only 62 defense projects were carried out 20 years ago, this number has reached 800 today.
"More than half of these projects have been initiated in the last six years. While defense projects with a budget of $5.5 billion were carried out 20 years ago, a project volume of more than $60 billion has been reached today, and this tends to increase even more," Demir said.
The SSB head went on to say that according to the sector performance data for 2021 prepared by the Defense and Aviation Industry Manufacturers Association (SASAD), the number of new orders received by the defense and aerospace industry increased by around 40% in 2021 compared to the previous year and amounted to approximately $9 billion.
"The research and development (R&D) expenditures of our industry, meanwhile, increased by 32% compared to the previous year and exceeded approximately $1.6 billion."
He noted that the number of countries to which Turkey exports defense industry products has increased to 170, and the number of exported products, particularly the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), land vehicles and naval platforms, has increased to 228.
While Turkey had an annual export of only $248 million, again, 20 years ago, he said: "We closed the year 2021 at a record level of $3.2 billion. We aim for the figures for 2022 to be well above $4 billion."
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