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While some of my colleagues are in San Jose, we’re back at IDEF in Istanbul. IDEF is the largest defense trade show for the Middle East, taking place every other year.
Our booth location is excellent. We are delighted to be just a few meters from the four “big ones” who are the tier one defense suppliers in Turkey: Aselsan, Havelsan, TAI (Turish Aerospace Industries) and Rocketsan.
Turkey is embarking on a very aggressive campaign to boost defense exports. The country’s military and aerospace exports have almost doubled in five years, rising from $883 million in 2011 to $1.68 billion last year.
In 2016, Turkey’s top export market was the United States, with $587 million worth of business—almost a third of all Turkish exports. Other top markets were Germany ($185 million), Malaysia ($99 million), Azerbaijan ($83 million), Saudi Arabia, Britain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia.
Although there is a strong requirement for the main defense companies to maximize indigenous content, Abaco has a pretty strong foothold into various programs. For example, TAI was for the first year displaying the S version of the Turkish MALE UAV (pictured) that includes a SAR which features a number of Abaco boards.
The show opened yesterday, and will close Friday May 12.
