This year, for the first time, a total of 7 Turkish Companies were listed on the Defense news Top 100 list;  Aselsan, Turkish Aerospace, BMC, Roketsan, STM, FNSS and Havelsan achieved inclusion on this important defense industry list which is published in August each year and is calculated according to the data provided by the companies. 

While Aselsan was in the top 50 for the first time, FNSS and Havelsan made it on the list for the first time. TUSAŞ entered this list in 2012, where Aselsan had been the only Turkish company until that year. They were then followed by Roketsan in 2017, STM in 2018, and BMC in 2019. With the addition of FNSS and Havelsan to the list announced this year, the number of Turkish companies, which was only two, four years ago, rose to seven. In terms of the number of companies in the list, Turkey with 7 companies ranked 4th after the United States, the United Kingdom and the People’s Republic of China.

Having entered the Defense News Top 100 List for the first time in 2006 from 93rd place, Aselsan continued its steady rise this year as well, raising its position from 52th last year to 48th place. Aselsan increased its defense revenues of $ 1.792 billion in 2018 to $ 2.172 billion in 2019 with an increase of 21%. Acquiring 95% of its total turnover from defense sales, the company’s total turnover was recorded as $ 2.290 billion in 2019. Aselsan had achieved a defense revenue of $ 1.424 billion in 2017, $ 1.195 billion in 2016, and $ 1.025 billion in 2015, the year when oil and natural gas prices dropped sharply. 

Turkish Aerospace (TUSAŞ), which ranked 69th on last year’s list, moved up 16 steps this year to 53rd and is getting closer to take place in the Top 50. Having achieved a defense revenue of $ 1.307 billion in 2018, TUSAŞ increased its defense sales by 42% in 2019 to $ 1.858 billion. Generating 82% of its turnover from defense sales, TUSAŞ's total sales in 2019 were $ 2.266 billion.

On the list, BMC ranked 89th with its defense revenue of $ 533 million. BMC's defense sales decreased by 4% compared to the previous year and the company, which ranked 85th last year and fell to 89th place this year. BMC's defense revenue, which was $ 298 million in 2017, had increased by 86% in 2018 to $ 554 million, and it had entered the Defense News Top 100 List in 2019 for the first time in 85th place.

Roketsan ranked 91st with its defense sales of $ 515 million in 2020. Roketsan first entered the list in 98th place in 2017 and then in 2018 it ranked 96th with its defense revenue of $ 376 million. The company moved up 7 steps in 2019 to 89th place defense revenue $ 522 million. When we have a look at Roketsan's sales this year, it is seen that the defense revenues have decreased by 1% compared to the previous year.

Another successful Turkish company, STM, ranked 92nd with its defense turnover of $ 485 million in 2020. STM which entered the Top 100 list for the first time in 2018, fell from 85th to 92nd with a 14% drop in defense revenues in the Defense News Top 100 List in 2020. STM, which ranked 85th by rising 12 steps in the list in 2019, achieved $ 369 million defense revenues in 2018, and in 2019, it increased its defense revenues to $ 564 million with an increase of 53%. The total turnover of the company was recorded as $ 586 million.

FNSS, one of the Turkish companies that entered the list for the first time this year, ranked 98th with its defense revenues of $ 374 million, while another Turkish company Havelsan, which entered the list for the first time this year, ranked 99th with its defense revenues of $ 295 million. In the light of the data shared by the company last year, it was seen that defense turnover increased by 6%, while the total sales revenue of the company, 86% of which was obtained from defense revenues, was recorded as $ 342 million.

In the light of data shared by seven Turkish companies listed in the Defense News Top 100 List in 2020, the total defense revenue in 2019 was recorded as $ 6.232 billion.

The U.S. company Lockheed Martin, which has been at the top of the list since its first release in 2000, was again at the top of the list with its defense revenue of $ 56 billion, with an increase of 12% compared to the previous year. The U.S. company Boeing ranked 2nd with its defense revenues of $ 34 billion. General Dynamics which ranked 6th last year took 3rd place this year. On the list where the top 5 consist of American companies, Northrop Grumman took 4th place and Raytheon took 5th place.

8 U.S. companies, 7 Chinese, 1 British, 1 Russian, 1 French, 1 Italian, 1 Dutch/French companies took place in the top 20 of the Defense News Top 100 List in 2020, just like the previous year.