Speaking at the “Growing Together: Progress Through Collaboration” panel held during the Take Off Istanbul 2025 entrepreneurship summit, ASELSAN General Manager Ahmet Akyol emphasized the strategic importance of Türkiye’s rapidly developing technological ecosystem. He explained that the cooperation between major defense companies, startups and academia has become one of the key factors that determine competitiveness in today’s world. According to Akyol, the era of competition among individual products has ended; now, ecosystems compete with each other, and Türkiye’s defense ecosystem is positioning itself strongly in this global race.

Akyol highlighted ASELSAN’s innovation strategies and its close cooperation with startups, pointing to the ASELFLIR-500 electro-optical camera as a prime example. Developed in only three years, the system has already been delivered to 20 countries and is considered one of the best in its class worldwide. Akyol also noted that ASELSAN transferred 3.5 billion dollars in orders to SMEs within 11 months, demonstrating how the company contributes to the expansion of Türkiye’s defense industry supply chain.

He further discussed the Asel Labs initiative, which includes Türkiye’s first quantum computing and chip development laboratories established across four universities. With over 20 million dollars invested, these laboratories have begun producing cutting-edge technologies developed by domestic researchers, marking an important milestone for Türkiye’s future technological capabilities.

The most striking point of Akyol’s speech was the recent world-first achievement by Bayraktar KIZILELMA. Akyol reminded the audience of the unmanned combat aircraft’s successful air-to-air missile test, emphasizing that this breakthrough was possible thanks to the strong collaboration between ASELSAN, Baykar and TÜBİTAK SAGE. He also revealed that ASELSAN’s new embedded camera technology was successfully flown on KIZILELMA for the first time. “This collaboration has opened the door to accomplishing what was previously thought impossible,” Akyol stated, underlining Türkiye’s rising global influence. He added that Türkiye is no longer just a follower but has become a country whose technologies are being imitated and closely watched worldwide.