Turkish defence Ministry Company MKE plans to establish new entities in Europe following a 16-fold export surge and a record investment of $818 million in production infrastructure.
Makine ve Kimya Endüstrisi (MKE), Turkiye’s state-owned defence manufacturer, is preparing to establish new companies and form strategic partnerships across Europe, aiming to benefit from the European Union’s €800 billion defence budget. The move was announced during a presentation at the Turkish Parliament’s Committee on State-Owned Enterprises (KİT), where MKE General Manager İlhami Keleş and Deputy Minister of Defence Alpaslan Kavaklıoğlu outlined the company’s international growth ambitions.
Keleş stated that MKE had increased its exports from $40 million in 2021 to $639 million in 2024—a 16-fold rise—and reached an annual revenue of $1.2 billion for the first time in its history. Of this turnover, 53 per cent came from international markets. “This year, we surpassed the billion-dollar threshold, with a 156 per cent increase in dollar-based revenue,” Keleş said. He also revealed that MKE has signed contracts worth $7 billion domestically and nearly $1 billion internationally.
The company’s ongoing transformation includes an investment budget of $818 million—currently the largest in Turkiye’s defence sector and the third-largest across all industries. As part of this investment, MKE is building a new production complex in Kırıkkale covering 4.7 million square metres—effectively the size of a small city.
Deputy Minister Kavaklıoğlu underlined the strategic relevance of joining the European market: “In the coming years, we plan to establish and partner with new companies in Europe. Our goal is to lead in this new era of competition and strengthen our national defence industry.”
Author: Özgür Ekşi
