Aselsan Secures $616M to Power Turkey’s Steel Dome Air Defense Ambitions

Türkiye’s leading defense electronics firm, Aselsan, has received a $616 million boost from the Ministry of Industry and Technology, a strategic move to accelerate the development of cutting-edge facilities essential to the country’s Steel Dome air defense system. The investment is part of the government’s expansive Project-Based Investment Incentives, also known as the Super Incentive Program.

Announced in a corporate statement released Wednesday, the funding aims to establish three high-tech centers that will dramatically increase domestic production capacity for critical air defense technologies.

Three Strategic Facilities to Bolster Domestic Defense Innovation

The capital injection will support the construction of:

• A photon detector and nanotechnology manufacturing center

• A radar systems integration and production hub

• A smart munitions-enabled air defense systems production and testing facility

These new facilities are projected to produce a substantial share of the technology necessary for the Steel Dome, Türkiye’s ambitious AI-integrated air defense network.

Government Backs Technological Sovereignty Vision

The investment package was formally delivered by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Aselsan CEO Ahmet Akyol during the “2030 Industrial and Technology Strategy and Large-Scale Investments Launch Event.”

“We want to maximize our technological independence, ensuring that Türkiye both generates technology and becomes a leading country in the manufacturing and export of high-tech products,” President Erdoğan declared during his speech.
“We have supported our country’s production infrastructure with strong incentives for investment.”

Steel Dome Set to Strengthen National and Global Defense

First introduced in August 2024, the Steel Dome project is designed to operate as a network-based air defense solution, integrating artificial intelligence to provide full-spectrum protection—from very low to very high altitudes and across short to long-range threats.

The system is widely viewed as Türkiye’s answer to Israel’s Iron Dome, and is being developed in response to growing regional security threats and increasing global demand for sophisticated defense systems.

Aselsan Targets NATO and Gulf Markets for Export

In a February interview with Breaking Defense, Aselsan CEO Ahmet Akyol revealed the company’s export ambitions for the Steel Dome, including outreach to both NATO member states and Gulf nations.

“The Steel Dome is a very promising system. All nations want to have this kind of system,” Akyol said, hinting at strong international interest.

Backed by the latest investment, Aselsan now plans to scale up high-volume serial production of key technologies with above-average export value per kilogram, a critical metric in the defense export sector.

Global Competitiveness at the Core of Strategy

“These facilities will enable us to respond more quickly to the growing export demand for these technologies, making ASELSAN a more competitive player on [a] global scale,” the company emphasized in its official statement.

With these upgrades, Aselsan is set to not only solidify Türkiye’s defense autonomy but also position itself as a leading exporter of high-tech defense systems, further integrating with both regional and international defense markets.