Turkish President Erdogan hails progress in defense industry, emphasizes reduced foreign dependency
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday spoke at a ceremony where a new ALTAY tank was delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces for testing.
He expressed gratitude to Allah for the reduction of foreign dependence in the defense industry from 80% to 20% in just 20 years and noted that the number of defense projects has grown from 62 to over 750.
Erdoğan emphasized that developing products in the defense industry requires years of effort, patience, and financial resources.
He highlighted the emergence of UCAVs, armored vehicles, warships, frigates, missiles, and other systems, which he claimed are greatly admired around the world.
He stated that they have chosen the difficult but auspicious path towards achieving a fully independent defense industry.
He also mentioned that the total budget for defense projects has increased from 5.5 billion dollars in 2002 to a current volume of 75 billion dollars, including projects in the bidding process. (ILKHA)