ASELSAN, SSB Sign €523M Next-Gen Air Defense Deal
Turkish defense electronics maker ASELSAN has signed a €523 million development contract with Türkiye’s Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) for a “next-generation air and missile defense system.” The company disclosed the agreement through a filing to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) on October 26, 2026.
The KAP filing does not specify the system’s range, intercept profile, or sub-components. ASELSAN said only that the contract is expected to have a positive effect on company revenue, and gave no delivery timeline.
What the Filing Confirms
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Parties | ASELSAN – Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) |
| Value | €523,000,000 |
| Scope | Development of a “next-generation” air and missile defense system |
| Filed | October 26, 2026, KAP |
| Not disclosed | Delivery schedule, range, subcontractors |
A Development Deal, Not Serial Production
Most of ASELSAN’s recent SSB air-defense contracts have covered serial production and delivery of existing systems. This one is explicitly a development agreement, suggesting the program is still in design and engineering rather than field testing. Türkiye’s current air-defense layering runs from the short/medium-range HİSAR family to the long-range SİPER interceptor; the phrase “next generation” suggests SSB and ASELSAN are working on a capability meant to sit beyond or alongside that layer — potentially against maneuvering ballistic or hypersonic cruise threats — though the filing does not confirm this reading.
Part of a Busy Year for ASELSAN’s Air-Defense Book
The €523 million agreement is the latest in a string of 2026 air-defense contracts for ASELSAN. The company disclosed a €780 million contract tied to the “Steel Dome” layered air-defense initiative in June, and a €1.47 billion agreement in July covering serial production of long-range air-defense systems. A separate $442.5 million export contract for radar, counter-drone, and command-and-control systems was filed with KAP earlier in October. Together, these filings show ASELSAN expanding both its domestic air-defense backlog and its export book in parallel, with this latest contract aimed specifically at the research-and-development stage that precedes future production orders.
The Steel Dome Context
Since 2024, Türkiye has publicly framed its layered air-defense build-out under the “Steel Dome” (Çelik Kubbe) umbrella, intended to link point-defense systems such as KORKUT and GÖKDENİZ with HİSAR and SİPER under a single command-and-control network. SSB President Haluk Görgün has previously described the architecture’s ambition to cover the full threat spectrum from drones to ballistic missiles. The KAP filing does not say where the new system fits in that architecture, but the timing indicates design work has begun on a system meant to extend Turkish air defense capability into the 2030s.
What Comes Next
ASELSAN’s past development contracts, including SİPER and HİSAR, typically moved from prototype manufacturing through field trials before a follow-on serial-production contract was signed with SSB — a process that took three to five years in earlier programs. No test date or system name has been made public yet. We will update this article as more becomes known.
Sources
- ASELSAN / Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) — “New Business Relationship” filing, October 26, 2026 — primary source for the contract value, parties and date.
