Turkish Aerospace Industries

Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) is Turkey's state-linked aerospace and defense manufacturer, founded in 1973 to reduce the country's dependence on foreign suppliers for military aircraft. The company is majority owned by public bodies: the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation holds approximately 54.5% of shares and the Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) holds approximately 45.4%, with a small remaining stake held by the Turkish Aeronautical Association. Its headquarters and main production facilities are located near Ankara, Turkey.

Turkish Aerospace began as a joint venture assembling F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters under license and has since grown into a diversified aerospace group organized around aviation structures, fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial systems, space systems and national combat-aircraft programmes. Its manned-aircraft portfolio includes the Hürkuş basic trainer and CN-235 transport, while its rotorcraft line includes the T129 ATAK attack helicopter and T625 Gökbey utility helicopter. The company also leads Turkey's TAI Kaan fifth-generation fighter programme and produces aerostructures for international partners including Airbus and Boeing.

Turkish Aerospace's unmanned systems division has become one of its most prominent business lines. The company's Anka family, first flown in 2010, was Turkey's first domestically developed medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial system and has since been exported to several countries. Building on that programme, Turkish Aerospace developed the larger ANKA-AKSUNGUR, a twin-engine MALE platform with substantially greater payload and endurance that entered Turkish Naval Forces service in 2021. Other unmanned programmes include the stealth-oriented ANKA-III combat drone and the Şimşek family of target drones.