ASELSAN has climbed to 40th place on the Defense News Top 100 List, up from 43rd a year earlier, making it the first Turkish defense company to enter the global top 40. The milestone reflects the company’s sustained growth, expanding international footprint, record order backlog, continued investment in advanced technologies and industrial capacity, and its standing as Europe’s fifth-largest defense company by market capitalization.
As Türkiye’s leading defense company, ASELSAN’s climb up the ranking underscores its transformation under the aselsaneXt strategy, which aims to evolve the company from a local defense supplier into a leading global provider of defense electronics and systems. With capabilities spanning air defense, electronic warfare, radar, electro-optics, communications, avionics, guided munitions, naval systems and unmanned platforms, ASELSAN continues to develop integrated technologies that address the increasingly complex demands of modern warfare.
The company’s rise also reflects strong operational performance and an expanding global brand presence. ASELSAN secured more than $2 billion in export contracts in 2025, while new contract awards in the first half of 2026 jumped 72 percent to $4.9 billion, pushing its backlog to a record $23.2 billion, up 45 percent. Revenue rose 38.5 percent to $2 billion in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year. Over the same six months, the company increased capacity and scale-expansion investments by 195 percent to $323 million and raised R&D spending 41 percent to $804 million, fueling its technological, industrial and international expansion as its global footprint grew to 97 countries.
A key driver of this expansion is ASELSAN’s Oğulbey Technology Base, the largest investment in the company’s history. The facility is being commissioned in phases, with its first section already operational and production of select air defense systems underway on site. Once fully operational, the plant is designed to more than double ASELSAN’s production capacity and substantially strengthen its serial production infrastructure for critical systems, particularly those developed under the Steel Dome program. The completed facility is planned to become Europe’s largest integrated air defense complex.
At the center of ASELSAN’s technological transformation is Steel Dome, Türkiye’s sovereign, multi-layered air defense architecture that provides integrated protection across multiple ranges against a wide spectrum of aerial threats. Its advanced, networked capabilities reflect the technological depth behind ASELSAN’s rise in the Defense News Top 100, reinforced by the company’s strong capabilities in land, air and naval systems, mission payloads, and electronic warfare.
ASELSAN President and CEO Ahmet Akyol commented on the company’s rise in the global ranking: “Our rise in the Defense News Top 100 is a clear reflection of the scale, momentum and global competitiveness ASELSAN has built. In just three years, we have grown our backlog from $7-8 billion to $23 billion, and with the opportunities and contract negotiations currently underway, we are targeting $30 billion by year-end. With more than 14,000 employees, a world-class engineering and R&D community, and a rapidly expanding presence across NATO markets, as underscored by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s visit to ASELSAN, as well as across Europe, the Gulf and other strategic regions, we are building ASELSAN into a global defense technology powerhouse. As we look ahead, we are determined to climb even higher in the Defense News Top 100, expanding our export reach, accelerating deliveries, and strengthening our technological and industrial capabilities at scale.”
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