Reports from earlier this year show that Turkey is the world’s 15th top military spender, unsurprising given the political tensions surrounding its borders. But today this budget is being stretched further than ever beforeand the country must continue to do more with what it has available in order to maintain its national security.

One considerable challenge facing Turkey lies in the increasingly sophisticated, broadening range ofthreats to its security; threats that require a greater spread of technologies and capabilities to suppress. Alongside this, the government has made its intentions regarding an indigenous defence force clear. A little over a decade ago, Turkey’s defence industry was 80 percent foreign dependent, according to Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz. However today Turkey is no longerrelying so heavily on imported technology and has placed its focus on indigenous growth, with defence exports of more than $1.6 billion a year. In the long term there are cost efficiencies and economic growth to be gainedfrom this strategy, yetit cannot be achieved overnight by domestic companies building new technologies from the ground up.