Overview

• President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presided over the handover of 47 vehicles worth $460 million to the Turkish Armed Forces at Aselsan’s Ankara site.
• The Steel Dome integrates land- and sea-based air-defense platforms and sensors into a unified network, with plans previously described as modeled on Israel’s Iron Dome.
• The government has not specified when the integrated system will achieve full operational capability.
• Erdogan broke ground on the $1.5 billion Oğulbey Technology Base, described as Turkey’s largest single defense investment, with an initial facility targeted for mid-2026.
• Ankara links the program to regional security pressures and longstanding aims of defense self-sufficiency after earlier reliance on foreign systems such as the 2019 S-400 purchase.