Turkish defense firm Roketsan plans $3B infrastructure boost

Turkish defense contractor Roketsan is launching a $3 billion infrastructure expansion to boost its domestic missile production and space launch capabilities, the firm’s CEO Murat Ikinci told members of the press at a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday.

Roketsan recently completed the first $1 billion phase of the initiative, anchored by a $450 million fuel production plant in the central Turkish city of Kirikkale, which is expected to significantly boost Türkiye’s fuel output.

The firm will also establish a new tech research and development (R&D) center to be staffed by 1,000 workers — the facility is described as Europe’s largest warhead manufacturing plant.

The new infrastructure will enable the domestic mass production of anti-tank weapons, penetration warheads, and Tayfun ballistic missiles.

Ikinci outlined the firm’s financial roadmap, framing the infrastructure expansion as a necessary response to the booming global defense market.

“We aim to add another $2 billion to this amount with the new investments we will make in the coming period, bringing the total to $3 billion,” he said at the inauguration ceremony, which was also attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

This week saw the start of the next phase of the firm’s new air defense and ballistic missile production plant groundbreaking, on a 72,000-square-meter (17.7-acre) complex.

Ikinci stated that Roketsan secured over $10 billion in new orders last year, as a defense supplier to nearly 50 countries — he said the firm’s total export volume surged more than 100% last year.

Roketsan plans to reinvest all generated revenue into infrastructure and mass production capabilities to continue meeting the needs of the Turkish Armed Forces and its growing portfolio of international buyers.

Ikinci added that Roketsan is also working on accelerating Türkiye’s domestic space exploration goals via its Simsek 1and Simsek 2 programs, as the firm nears the launch phase of homegrown satellites into orbit using completely domestically-made space vehicles.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim in Istanbul