Turkey is building Europe's largest air defense systems production center

Turkey has launched a large-scale project to create a technological base for the production of air defense systems. The facility, which is being built in the country's capital, Ankara, will become the largest center for the production of air defense systems in Europe upon completion. The Turkish defense company Aselsan told Ukrinform.

According to the company, the investment in the project will amount to about 1.5 billion US dollars. The building will have 735 thousand square meters of closed space and will be located on a campus with an area of 6.5 million square meters. The first production lines are planned to be put into operation by mid-2026.

The new base will be the main site for the production and integration of Turkey's multi-layered national air and missile defense system, known as "Steel Dome". It will develop and produce key systems, including SİPER, HİSAR and KORKUT, as well as MURAD AESA radars, ALP and PUHU subsystems, electronic warfare equipment, control systems and electro-optical guidance technologies.

In addition to production facilities, the base will function as a comprehensive defense campus. It will include research and development laboratories, integration and testing centers, as well as infrastructure to support the product life cycle.

According to Aselsan, the facility will become a platform for developing new solutions in the field of radar, smart munitions, communication technologies, and the application of artificial intelligence in the defense industry.

We recently reported that Russia is offering Turkey to buy back the S-400 systems that Ankara purchased in 2017 for $2.5 billion and received in 2019. It is reported that Turkey may agree to this step, as the country is simultaneously developing its own Steel Dome system, which reduces dependence on Russian technology.