Turkey’s Defense Industry Is Growing Fast, But There’s Still A Gap
Let me be clear, Turkey’s defense industry has come a long way.
The country is building drones, missiles, warships, air defense systems, fighter aircraft and a lot of other advanced military technology domestically.
But if we look at the missile side, I think there is still one major gap.
Turkey has yet to produce a weapon that gives it the kind of long range, high speed strike capability we are seeing from some other major defense powers.
Israel has the Golden Horizon, a long range air launched ballistic missile capable of reaching around 2,000 km.
Russia has Kinzhal.
China has the YJ-21.
These aren’t just missiles with impressive numbers on paper. Weapons in this category can force an opponent to rethink how it protects air bases, ships, command infrastructure and other high value assets.
Turkey has some very capable missile programs, but we are still waiting to see a publicly demonstrated Turkish air launched missile with comparable supersonic or hypersonic performance and long range reach.
And this is where I think Turkey’s next big challenge lies.
The Turkish defense industry has already shown that it can build sophisticated systems.
Now the question is whether it can take the next step and develop weapons that don’t just add another capability, but change the calculations of an adversary.
That is a completely different level of military technology.
Turkey is clearly moving fast.
But the real test will be what comes next.
Not more missiles. More reach, more speed, more survivability and a weapon capable of changing the battlefield equation.
