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Turkish Defense & Aerospace Industry Starts 2022 with Record Increase in Exports! Turkey’s Arms Sales to Africa Continues Upward Trend in January 2022

Having closed the year 2021 with record-high export revenues of US$3.224 billion, the highest defense export figures in the history of the Republic, representing a 41.5% increase (during the January 1st – December 31st 2021 period, Turkey’s total exports increased just 32.9% and reached around US$225.368 billion) in exports of defense and aerospace products compared to 2020. The Turkish Defense and Aerospace Industry has jumpstarted 2022 with the highest January defense export figures in history.

Date: Issue 112 - February 2022

According to the January 2022 figures released by the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) on February 2, 2022, Turkish Defense and Aerospace Industry exports increased by 84.2% in January and hit an all-time high with US$306 million (this figure does not cover automotive industry related defense exports valued at approximate US$27.844) compared to the same month last year (US$165.540 million), despite the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Export revenues are expected to increase further in the coming months and will finally exceed the annual export target of US$4 billion that was recently defined for the year 2022.

In his interview with Yeni Şafak newspaper published on January 6, 2022, author Mehmet ACET stated that President of Turkish Defense Industries (SSB) İsmail DEMİR said that the export target for 2022 was at least US$4 billion. “I can say that we are looking forward to over US$4 billion for 2022. We should not stay below US$4 billion. I can say that it is an absolute limit for us. We expect to go much higher than that. Let's say over US$4 billion, we'll see how much the performance will be,” DEMİR said. In January 2021 speaking at an event jointly organized by the Istanbul Defense and Aerospace Cluster Association and Istanbul Chamber of Industry, the SSB’s İsmail DEMİR had disclosed that Turkey’s 2023 targets for the defense industry were US$27 billion in revenue, US$10 billion in exports and 80,000 employees.