Defense industry targets to reach one bln USD export

ANKARA (A.A) - January 23, 2012 - Turkish defense industry targets to reach one billion USD of export rate in 2012. Defense Industry Undersecretary Murad Bayar told AA on Monday that they were planning to increase the export of defense industry from 100 million USD to one billion USD. We exceeded 800 million USD in 2011, and we think we will catch one billion USD in exports this year, he added. Bayar said that the mission of Defense Industry Undersecretariat was to meet the needs of Turkish Armed Forces by Turkish-made products. Noting that they had focused on production more in the past, Bayar said that recently they were making both technology and the design of the products in Turkey. Bayar noted that they were conducting 260 projects currently. Bayar also said that Turkey was the third country after the U.S. and Israel which produced unmanned aerial vehicle, adding that Turkey's unmanned aerial vehicle ANKA would be ready for use within 2012.