Türkiye is close to breaking into the ranks of the world's top 10 defense exporters, as domestically developed platforms gain widespread international trust, a top official said Thursday.

Haluk Görgün, head of the Defense Industries Presidency (SSB), said the global success of Turkish defense platforms was driving demand, as he addressed an event marking the second anniversary of the National Competence Initiative in the capital Ankara.

The initiative is a strategic human capital transformation program launched to develop and sustain the technical, behavioral and leadership skills required across Türkiye's defense and aerospace industry.

The SSB and affiliated companies have been hosting dozens of foreign delegations every week as an increasing number of countries seek to purchase Turkish defense products, Görgün said.

Türkiye's defense exports hit $5.79 billion in the January-July period, an increase of 26.2% from a year earlier. Annualized sales reached $11.2 billion.

Shipments rose about 48% year-over-year in 2025 to a record of more than $10 billion.

Türkiye is currently the world's 11th-largest defense exporter, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said, addressing the same event Thursday.

"Growth rates are looking very strong this year as well. God willing, we will set a new export record this year," Yılmaz said.

"Our goal is to place our country among the top 10 exporting nations as soon as possible."

In recent years, Türkiye has significantly ramped up its defense industry production.

It has injected billions of dollars to transform from a nation heavily reliant on equipment from abroad to one that is a major exporter and where homegrown systems now meet almost all of its defense industry needs.

For much of the past two decades, Ankara has expressed frustration over its Western allies' failure to provide adequate defense systems against missile threats despite Türkiye being a major NATO member.

The country currently exports more than 230 defense systems to 185 countries.

Stressing technological independence, Görgün said, "Dependence on foreign sources for critical technologies amounts to a silent transfer of sovereignty."

He noted that the sector's global success was largely due to its human capital, noting that the average age of defense industry employees in Türkiye was 34, while some companies generating around $1 billion in revenue had an average employee age of under 30.

"Thanks to its young and skilled workforce, Türkiye is ready to meet the needs of its allies for decades to come," said Görgün.

According to Yılmaz, having a skilled workforce capable of developing, producing and ensuring the sustainability of tomorrow's technologies is what would help build on the achievements today, maintain technological superiority and prepare for the competitive environment of the future.

He noted that reducing dependence on foreign sources for critical technologies also requires reducing dependence on foreign sources for critical knowledge and skills.

"For this reason, we view the skills gap as a national security issue just as critical as the technology gap," said Yılmaz, noting that there are approximately 120,000 employees in the defense industry.

Görgün emphasized that nations survive through the capacity they build long before crises emerge and said the National Competence Initiative represented the human resources and competency dimension of the country's national resilience strategy.

"Many new fields became decisive in ensuring national security, ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) to quantum technologies, and from space exploration to cybersecurity," he said.

"We're determined to be one of the pioneers in this great technological race, since after all, foreign dependence for critical technologies could spell a silent transfer of sovereignty."

Görgün said the initiative had reached around 500,000 people, bringing together seven target groups, ranging from high school students to industry executives, under a common development model comprising 11 programs.

"We reached 2,541 students over five semesters and included 7,000 vocational and technical high school students from 13 schools in 12 cities in our competency development initiatives, while implementing the Defense Industry Campus Program in eight cities with 3,000 participants," he said.

"We conducted modules at universities, offering 288 courses to 4,991 students."

He said career and competency meetings had also been held with a total of 111,000 people, while the Defense Career Platform brought together around 290,000 users and 339 companies.

The platform also delivered around 665 training sessions totaling more than 158,000 hours to over 73,000 users, he added.

Görgün said Erdoğan's vision of full independence for the Turkish defense industry was "the strongest pillar" supporting the sector through strategic planning.