There is a crowd at the stand of the Turkish drone company Baykar. At the fifth edition of the Turkish defense fair SAHA Expo, owner Selcuk Bayraktar, also son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stands in front of the latest drones Mizrak and Sivrisinek ‘de Mug’. “Our armed drones were the first in the world to be deployed in a conventional war, causing a paradigm shift,” he told a group of journalists. “We believe that the systems we have developed will also revolutionize warfare.”
It is no coincidence that it is so busy here. With the Bayraktar TB2, the billion-dollar company Baykar, led by the Selcuk brothers and Haluk Bayraktar, quickly grew into a global player. The breakthrough came six years ago during fighting in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, where relatively cheap drones proved to be an important factor on the battlefield. In the conflict, in which Azerbaijan was supported by Turkey against Armenia, the drones attracted worldwide attention.
Since then, international interest in Turkish drones has only grown. This is clearly visible at SAHA Expo. While the first edition in 2018 attracted 183 companies and 13,000 visitors, the defense fair has grown in a few years into an event with more than a thousand exhibitors and more than a hundred thousand visitors. Delegations, mainly from the global South, pass by the stands, pose with rockets and drones, and speak with Turkish manufacturers about purchasing and cooperation. NATO allies and Ukrainian representatives are also present. Conspicuously absent, on the other hand, are Russia, Iran and Israel.
“Defense fairs in Turkey have become a professional showcase of national industry, a kind of controlled display of power towards international partners,” said Serhat Güvenc, a defense expert and professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. “What were once small-scale events, mainly organized by the military, are now huge industry presentations, with a clear focus on exports.”
Strategic autonomy
Turkey wants to become one of the ten largest defense exporters in the world by 2026. The year started strong. In January, the defense and aviation sector recorded a record export of 470 million euros, more than forty percent more than a year earlier. The country is thus building on the strong growth of 2025, when exports amounted to a total of more than 8 billion euros.
This is partly because the Turkish defense industry has rapidly become more autonomous in recent years. This development accelerated after the United States in 2019, to the great frustration of Ankara, removed Turkey from the American F-35 program due to the purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system. The Americans feared that the Russian systems could expose sensitive information from the F-35.
At the defense fair in Istanbul, war seems more like a technological spectacle than a devastating reality
Since then, Turkey has increased its focus on domestic production of combat drones, missile systems and even its own fighter plane, the KAAN. Ankara is thus trying to reduce its dependence on Western suppliers. According to the Turkish government, national defense once relied for about 80 percent on foreign weapons systems. Now it is only 20 percent. “Turkey can now design and produce many platforms itself, such as drones, ships or armored vehicles. But when it comes to the most advanced technologies in those systems, it often still has to rely on foreign suppliers,” says defense expert Güvenc.
Atatürk’s signature
At the defense fair, the emphasis is mainly on autonomy and technological progress. To loud applause, the Turkish Ministry of Defense presents a new ballistic missile, the Yildirimhan, with a range of up to approximately six thousand kilometers. The rocket is more than six meters long and bears the signature of Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, at the head. With that reach, Turkey could theoretically hit targets in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.
“For countries without nuclear weapons, this is an alternative to nuclear deterrence. You are actually saying: we cannot destroy you, but we can hurt you anywhere,” says defense expert Bart van den Berg, affiliated with the Clingendael Institute in The Hague. “It is a different form of power. Less absolute than nuclear, but more flexible and therefore sometimes more credibly deployable.” According to Van den Berg, the strategic importance of that reach is evident: almost all potential opponents and rivals are in the danger zone, from Russia and Iran to Syria and Iraq.
The latest weapon systems will be displayed at the fair, such as the Yildirimhan missile, signed by Atatürk, and an unmanned naval drone.
Photos AP/REUTERS
The presentation of the new ballistic missile takes place at a time when the balance of power in the region is shifting. In Israeli security circles, Turkey is increasingly mentioned as a possible next rival and portrayed as ‘the next Iran’. At the same time, the recent wars in Ukraine and Iran show that military power carries more weight in international relations.
Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said during his opening speech at SAHA Expo that these conflicts have dramatically changed the regional and global security architecture. “These conflicts and wars have provided very valuable insights for security doctrine, while at the same time increasing our responsibilities,” Güler told a room of delegates from around the world.
What receives little attention at the fair are the consequences that all these weapon systems ultimately entail. The displays are dominated by figures about weight, range and speed, accompanied by exciting music and action movie-like videos. In that setting, war sometimes seems more like a technological spectacle than a devastating reality.
