Defense Minister Yaşar Güler attended the Defense Industry Forum held at the ATO Congresium General Assembly Hall. Speaking there, Güler said that the forum, organized as part of the NATO Summit, would address the defense industry capacity, production power, and innovative capabilities, which are among the most critical areas that will shape the Alliance's future deterrence and defense architecture.
Güler stated that the current security environment reminds us of a very clear truth, and stressed that countries must have a strong state structure, effective diplomacy, a deterrent military capacity, and a sustainable defense industry ecosystem in order to protect their sovereignty, rights, and interests.
Güler said that NATO's collective defense concept, the spirit of solidarity among allies, and the determination to act together are more important than ever.
Güler noted that the production capacity, ammunition stocks, platform modernization, sustainable supply chains, and a rapidly adaptable industrial ecosystem that support this determination are also vital, and added: "Indeed, the war in Ukraine has shown how decisive the speed of ammunition supply, unmanned systems, air and missile defense, electronic warfare, and rapid innovation are
in the modern warfare environment. Recent developments in and around the Strait of Hormuz have once again demonstrated that the security of transportation lines and supply chain management are now an integral part of defense planning. Therefore, the fundamental question for all of us now is: how quickly can we turn our commitments into real capability?"
"DOZENS OF MILITARY SHIPS ARE BEING BUILT SIMULTANEOUSLY" Minister Güler said that one of the main objectives of the Ankara Summit is for allies to demonstrate their increased defense investments, achieve new capability targets, expand their production capacities, and build a stronger, more innovative, and more resilient transatlantic defense industrial base.
Emphasizing that Turkey, acting with this awareness, has elevated its domestic and national production capacity and engineering infrastructure in the defense industry to a globally remarkable level, Güler said: "Today, we have significant competencies in a wide range of areas, from land, sea, and air platforms to unmanned systems, from electronic warfare capabilities to air defense solutions.
Indeed, dozens of military ships are being built simultaneously in our shipyards. Turkey has a capacity in naval platform production that not only meets its own needs but can also contribute to its allies and partners.
The serial production phase of our Altay main battle tank, within the scope of the modernization of our land forces, is a concrete indicator of the technological and industrial level we have reached in the field of armored land vehicles.
"AMMUNITION PRODUCTION IS ALSO ONE OF THE MOST CRITICAL TOPICS FOR THE ALLIANCE" Noting that the KAAN program shows Turkey has moved up to a new league in its capacity to develop high-tech combat air platforms in the air operations domain, Güler said, "Ammunition production is also one of the most critical topics for the Alliance.
In recent years, we have rapidly increased our 155 mm ammunition production capacity and have become one of the allies producing concrete results in this field. With ROKETSAN's new production and integration investments, we are significantly expanding our missile and ammunition production capacity," he said.
Minister Güler pointed out that the investments of companies like ASELSAN and HAVELSAN in radar, electronic warfare, communications, command-control, software, simulation, and artificial intelligence-supported systems are advancing the defense industry capacity not only quantitatively but also qualitatively, and added: "Along with all this, we also consider NATO's 5 percent defense investment commitment important.
Because this commitment is also a concrete demonstration of the will to strengthen the Alliance's deterrence, scale up defense production, and project the capabilities we need onto the field in a timely manner. The wars and conflicts we have witnessed have shown that success on the ground depends not only on existing stocks but also on the capacity for rapid learning, rapid production, and rapid adaptation.
As the distance between soldiers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers shortens in many areas, from drone technologies to electronic warfare, from ammunition production to software updates, effectiveness on the front line increases. Therefore, our task is to build this culture of cooperation in peacetime.
After a crisis emerges, setting up a production line, establishing a supply chain, or developing common standards may be too late. Preparation must be done today." Calling on NATO member countries to turn commitments into capability, Güler said, "Let us turn resources into production. Let us turn our industrial strength into deterrence and strengthen our Alliance's security not with words, but with concrete capacity that has a counterpart on the ground.
In this framework, we hope that the contacts and assessments made throughout the forum will turn into real projects, joint ventures, production agreements, and capability outputs," he said.
