Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz attends the Opening Session of the 3rd Legislative Year of the 28th Term of the Turkish Grand National Assembly at the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, Turkiye on October 1, 2024. (Photo by Harun Ozalp/Anadolu via Getty Images)
BEIRUT — Turkey plans to increase its defense and security spending in 2025 to ₺1.61 trillion ($47 billion), its highest-ever military budget, in what experts said is a response to increased local production and raging conflicts in neighboring countries.
Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz told reporters in a briefing Thursday that the money will be split, with ₺ 913.9 billion ($26.6 billion) going to the defense spending budget and ₺694.5 billion ($20.28 billion) going to internal security.
The 2025 budget, which is a 17.5 percent increase from the $40 billion 2024 budget, follows the recent upward trend of defense spending in Turkey. The 2024 budget, for instance, was a 150 percent increase from the prior year’s $16 billion budget.
Experts told Breaking Defense that the surge in spending was spurred by Ankara’s focus on boosting its air and missile defense capabilities, as well as supporting local defense production.
“Air defense systems and missiles will be at the top of these projects,” Turkish aerospace and defense expert Cem Dogut said. “Air defense was one of the weakest areas of the Turkish Armed Forces. For many years, this task was left to the air force, and the air force had mainly resorted to combating this with fighter jets.”
He also highlighted Turkish local projects in this domain, stating, “In order to eliminate this deficiency, various projects have been initiated to create a layered air defense, including the Hisar and Siper air defense missile families and various radar projects.”
Another budget need, according to Dogut, is maintaining modern aircraft fleet. “[There is a] need to maintain the current fleet while the current aircraft projects (Hürjet, Kaan) continue until they arrive. A serious additional budget is needed for the F-16 modernization project and the Eurofighter purchase,” he said.
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In her opinion, defense analyst Sine Özkaraşahin told Breaking Defense that Turkey has multiple ambitious defense projects, namely “upgrades to Kızılelma, the steel dome layered air defense system, and potential purchase of Eurofighter jets.”
She said Turkey is reacting to a high “threat perception in its neighborhood,” including instability in neighboring Syria, Iraq and Iran, as well as the current Armenia-Azerbaijan dispute. The Israeli wars in Gaza and Lebanon are a short trip across the Mediterranean.
Of the many surrounding conflicts, the biggest problem facing Turkey, according to Dogut, is the current situation in Syria.
“Previously, different operations were carried out [by Turkey] to create a safe zone in Syria. However, the entire border could not be secured, and new operations in this region seem inevitable. Although Turkey wants to postpone this as long as it can, it will eventually have to do so,” he added.
Turkey has been focused on making strides in localizing defense production in an attempt to become less dependent on Western technology that might be subjected to embargoes — a long-term investment that Dogut nevertheless says comes at a price.
“Producing a weapon system yourself from scratch will usually be more costly than purchasing it from abroad. Turkey is forced to produce everything it cannot buy from abroad, which wastes time and money,” he stressed.
