A general assessment of the Turkish defense industry would have to cover an extensive time span due to its multilayered development process and the different areas of strength throughout these periods. Therefore, an assessment of the current conditions of the Turkish defense sector would involve looking into the developments that took place after 2017 and how they turned out. What sets apart this period is first and foremost its official positioning in the republic. The industry was governed by the Defense Ministry from 1989 to 2017, when official control was transferred to the presidency in December and the industry was renamed the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB). The process of direct affiliation with the decision mechanism is relevant to the point that the defense industry has reached, as well as its desired objectives, the policies and the transformation of the defense industry, changes in the methods used in the fight against threat factors and changes in Turkey’s government model.

From the 1990s on and until the mid-2010s, the Turkish defense industry revolved around objectives such as setting strategic plans, declared objectives, sectoral policy analyses and the emphasis on a self-reliant industry. In the following period, the Turkish defense industry gained momentum in many areas, faced its existing deficiencies and problems and solved them and followed a unique trend of gaining strength, rising and expanding. Two important issues, counterterrorism and the failed coup attempt, shaped what have become the priorities of the industry itself. In order to grasp what this translates into concretely, one could present these developments as follows: