SAHA Expo defense fair opens this week

SAHA Expo Defense and Aerospace Exhibition will be held this week between Oct. 25 and 28 in Istanbul.

Around 57 countries will participate in the event, said İlhami Keleş, the general secretary of SAHA Istanbul, which organizes the fair.

"We will showcase our unmanned sea vehicles to foreign participants, which will include ministers from 11 countries. Domestically produced those vehicles have a huge potential just like the unmanned aerial vehicles," Keleş added.

The event may help Türkiye increase its defense exports above the targeted $4.5 billion, he said.

Türkiye has been positioning itself as a major player in the global defense and arms industry.

In the first nine months of 2022, the defense and aviation industry's export revenues amounted to $2.6 billion, rising more than 40 percent from the same period of 2021. Turkish defense firms sell their products to more than 80 countries.

Exports, which stood at only $248 million in 2002, climbed from $2.27 billion in 2020 to $3.22 billion last year, while the turnover of the defense sector rose from 1.1 billion Turkish Liras in 2002 to 10.9 billion liras in 2020.

The number of defense projects carried out by the local defense sector jumped from 66 some 20 years ago to nearly 800 last year.

High-level attendance

SAHA Istanbul is the largest industrial cluster of Türkiye and Europe with 876 companies and 24 universities.

At SAHA Expo, many strategically important and high-tech products in the defense, aviation, naval and space industries will be introduced for the first time.

More than 170 official delegations, 37 of which are high-level, such as the chief of general staff and force commanders, will participate in the...