Turkey’s Aselsan receives $616 million investment for Steel Dome-related tech facilities

ASELSAN a defense electronics company display air defense, radar, electronic warfare, electro-optics, avionics, guidance, land and weapon systems, communication, satellite and space, command and control systems during the Farnborough International Airshow 2024 at Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre on July 23, 2024. (Photo by John Keeble/Getty Images)

BEIRUT — Turkish electronics giant Aselsan has received an infusion of $616 million from the Turkish Ministry of Industry and Technology to build out new facilities, from which it expects a “substantial portion” of tech necessary for that nation’s Steel Dome air defense system to be produced.

The fund, announced in a company statement Wednesday, is part of the “Project-Based Investment Incentives (Super Incentive)” and is directed at three high-tech pursuits:

• a photon detector and nanotechnology facility
• a radar system integration and production facility
• an air defense systems production and test facility (including smart munition production)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented the incentives 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,” Erdogan said in a speech during the event. “We have supported our country’s production infrastructure with strong incentives for investment.”

Amid increased demand in the Middle East for air defense systems — as well as American President Donald Trump’s call for a Golden Dome in the US — Aselsan has been forging ahead as a primary mover of the Steel Dome effort. (The “dome” nomeclature appears to be derived from Israel’s famed Iron Dome, which is one layer of its multi-layered air defense system.)

Announced in August 2024, Turkey’s Steel Dome is meant to be a network-centric air defense system equipped with artificial intelligence and is expected to protect Turkey’s entire airspace from “very low altitude to very high altitude” and “very short range to long range” threats, according to a statement issued at the time by the government’s Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB).

Akyol, the Aselsan CEO, told Breaking Defense in a February interview that the firm is eyeing export of Steel Dome system to NATO allies as well as Gulf nations.

“The Steel Dome is very promising system. All nations want to have this kind of system,” Akyol said in the interview.

With the new investments, Aselsan expects to significantly increase “production capacity for high-volume serial production of critical technologies, whose export value per kilogram is well above the average of Türkiye and the defense industry, and new R&D infrastructures will be established,” Aselsan said in the statement.

“These facilities will enable us to respond more quickly to the growing export demand for these technologies, making ASELSAN a more competitive player on global scale,” according to the statement.