Turkey solved the production-and-export problem: Defence Exports Reach USD 10 Billion in 2025

The figures, from a Reuters review of trade data, capture a structural shift rather than a single strong year. Turkey's defence industry has moved from importer to exporter to, increasingly, supplier-of-choice for states that want capability without the political conditions attached to American or West European kit. Drones are the spearhead — Ankara supplies about 65 percent of the armed UAVs in use worldwide — but the export base has broadened across land systems, naval platforms and munitions, with sales to Europe and the US nearly quadrupling to USD 5.6 billion.

The timing is deliberate. Turkey hosts the NATO summit on 7–8 July and will make its defence industry a centrepiece, with a defence-industry forum billed as the alliance's most comprehensive yet; Ankara aims to double exports again within two years.

The proprietary read. Turkey is the NATO member that has solved the production-and-export problem the rest of the alliance is still arguing about. While Western Europe debates sovereign supply chains and ITAR-free designs, Ankara spent a decade building an export industry on exactly those principles — domestically controlled, politically unconditioned, priced to sell. The summit it hosts in July will showcase a member that has become a competitor to its allies' primes as much as a partner, and the European buyers eyeing Turkish drones and vehicles are the evidence. Tracked in Signal No. 76.