Türkiye's top defense exhibition last week attracted more than 120,000 visitors and saw contract signings with a total volume of $9 billion, top officials said on Monday.
The International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF) 2025 ran from Tuesday through Sunday and featured 1,491 participating companies and 231 official delegations from 103 countries, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said.
"A total of 270 signing ceremonies were held at the fair, with 65% of the agreements focused on exports. The commercial volume of the signed contracts exceeded $9 billion," Erdoğan said on the social media platform X.
The 17th edition of the exhibition saw 26 new defense products being unveiled, with over 1,100 items displayed for the first time, Haluk Görgün, head of the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB), said.
"This major gathering has taken the engineering strength, export vision and strategic resolve of our defense industry to the global stage," Görgün wrote on X.
"These figures are not merely a trade fair summary; they are the global reflection of our commitment to domestic production and our strategic defense architecture."
Past restrictions and embargoes have prompted Türkiye to develop a range of homegrown air, land and marine platforms, which eventually helped it seal billions of dollars worth of export deals in recent years.
The localization drive helped raise the domestic share in the defense industry to over 80%, up from just 20% in the early 2000s.
Türkiye's defense and aerospace exports reached a record of nearly $7.2 billion last year, a nearly 30% increase from the previous year. The figure more than tripled compared to $2.28 billion in 2020.
The shipments are expected to "easily" exceed $8 billion in 2025, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said on Friday. Exports topped $3.5 billion in the first six months, and sales are projected to accelerate in the second half and toward the final quarter, according to Bolat.
