Aselsan deliver Steel Dome components and expand capacity
Aselsan have delivered an extensive package of components to Türkiye which will constitute the nation’s Steel Dome integrated air and missile defence (IAMD) architecture.
These 47 systems – with a collective worth of $460m (Tl18.8bn) – arrived on 27 August, including long-range SİPER and medium-range HİSAR air defence systems; KORKUT self-propelled anti-air guns; ALP radar; and PUHU electronic warfare (EW) capabilities.
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Simultaneously, Aselsan is greasing the wheels of production as Tukish president Recep Tayipp Erdoğan laid the foundation of its new Oğulbey Technology Base. The complex is set to become the company’s largest site to date, covering a total area of 6.5 million square metres, equivalent to 900 football stadiums, and will support to the teams developing Steel Dome.
“This investment marks the single largest defense industry investment in our Republic’s history. And this will also be the largest integrated air defense facility in Europe,” Erdoğan specified.
“In the next 50 years,” he continued, “Türkiye will not only meet its own needs but also become a country that shapes the world with its technology.”
These words come a fortnight ahead of one of the leading global defence exhibitions, DSEI UK, where defence industry players, government and military leaders, and technology disruptors will gather to showcase their wares and form closer ties in a divided geopolitical context.
Notably, at the end of 2024, the Secretariat of Defence Industries – Turkiye’s procurement and defence-industrial strategy agency – announced that ‘defence and aerospace’ exports had reached $7.15bn, a 29% increase over the previous year.
Aselsan’s infrastructure expansion demonstrates the need for capacity as the company looks to tap into a European defence market reinvigorated by the Russia-Ukraine war.
This conflict, now more than three-and-a-half years old, has demonstrated the significance of integrating nodes and effectors across the battlefield, from satellite imagery to uncrewed systems and the artificial intelligence tools that speed up operations.
As Turkiye’s largest defence company and the primary contributor to a complicated air defence architecture such as Steel Dome, Aslesan is positioning itself as a key enabler for other military users.
