Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani’s first-ever official visit to Türkiye at the ministerial level included stops at the Istanbul Shipyard, Baykar, and TUSAŞ—boosting defense cooperation and technology partnership prospects.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and his delegation visited Baykar’s Özdemir Bayraktar National Technology Center, where Selçuk and Haluk Bayraktar briefed them on projects; SSB President Haluk Görgün also attended.

The HİSAR-D RF missile, launched from TCG İSTANBUL using ROKETSAN’s MİDLAS system, successfully hit its target off Sinop, demonstrating ASELSAN’s full system integration.

ASELSAN announced via the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) that it has signed a $54 million export contract with a customer in the Middle East and Africa for radar and command-control systems.

ASELSAN’s T-Link system will enable Turkey’s land, air, sea, space, and cyber forces to communicate securely and independently—without relying on NATO networks like Link-16.

Baykar announced that its first production base in Anatolia will be established in Samsun’s Tekkeköy district, creating a regional high-tech and defense industry hub.

Launched under President Erdoğan’s directive, the “National Competence Initiative” has reached 87,061 participants in its first year, empowering thousands through defense industry training programs.

ASELSAN reached ₺53.7 billion in revenue and signed $1.3 billion in export contracts in the first half of 2025, marking its strongest financial performance to date.