President Erdoğan announced the development that makes us proud: We wrote an epic in Germany.

24.02.2026 17:03

In his statements at the groundbreaking ceremony, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, "Our army wrote a legend at the NATO exercise held in Germany with the Bayraktar TB3 and our ship TCG ANADOLU."

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made statements at the HAVELSAN Technology Campus during the HAVELSAN Sancar Unmanned Marine Vehicle Commissioning, Groundbreaking, and Opening Ceremony.

In his speech, Erdoğan stated, "Our army wrote an epic together with our Bayraktar TB3 and TCG ANADOLU ship during the NATO exercise held in Germany." He added, "In this important exercise, the Bayraktar TB3 performed a shooting mission in the challenging weather conditions of the Baltic Sea and made a safe landing on TCG Anadolu, marking one of NATO's most remarkable performances. The Bayraktar TB3, which stayed in the air for eight hours in coordination with Eurofighter fighter jets, covered a total distance of one thousand seven hundred kilometers, showcasing its superior capabilities one by one. I sincerely congratulate each of my brothers who contributed to these achievements that bring a new breath to the naval aviation concept. I pray that God grants you, us, and all of us many more successes and works for this noble nation," he expressed.

Highlights from Erdoğan's statements;

Valuable members of our Turkish Armed Forces, esteemed managers and employees of HAVELSAN, distinguished representatives of the Turkish Armed Forces, precious guests, I greet you with my heartfelt feelings, respect, and affection. First of all, I congratulate each of you on your Ramadan. I hope that these blessed days will be a means of goodness for our country, our nation, and all humanity. I send my greetings and love from here to all members of HAVELSAN, our defense industry sector, and the Turkish Armed Forces through you.

I pray for God's mercy on all our martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the survival of our state, the future of our nation, and the independence of our homeland, so that our star-spangled red flag waves proudly in the sky. Likewise, I express my gratitude on behalf of myself and my nation to all our veterans who have paid the price for these lands, which we have made our homeland for a thousand years, spreading peace and security around us. Finally, I wholeheartedly congratulate all our engineers, technicians, software developers, academics, and of course, the members of the Turkish Armed Forces who heroically serve in the field, who have enabled us to reach these days by working day and night in the defense industry. I sincerely congratulate our Presidency of Defense Industries, which carries out these efforts in effective coordination, and the more than 3,500 firms in the sector for their successes. May God not let a stone touch your foot. I hope that your efforts and endeavors will be the guarantee of a stronger future and more prosperous tomorrows.

"WE ARE COMMISSIONING SANCAR SİDA"

Dear friends, today we will once again witness Turkey's engineering intellect, the capabilities and potentials in the defense field, and the future walk shaped by domestic and national technology. Soon, we will commission our SANCAR armed unmanned marine vehicle, lay the foundations of the Simulator Production and Integration Facility, and inaugurate the Kaan Technology Facility and the Naval Warfare Management System Center.

"OUR SECURITY AT SEA IS INCREASING"

With the SANCAR SİDA that we will add to our inventory, we are strengthening our unmanned capabilities at sea, increasing our security, effectiveness, and surveillance capacity. With the Simulator Production and Integration Facility, we are expanding our training, preparation, and sustainable operation infrastructure, making our human resources more qualified. When this complex is completed, it will be the largest production and integration facility in Europe for simulation technologies.

With the Kaan Technology Facility and the Naval Warfare Management System Center, we hope to further solidify the critical technology backbone of our air and naval platforms. I sincerely congratulate HAVELSAN, which has provided us with these proud systems, facilities, and platforms, and I express my gratitude on behalf of myself and my nation. I wish that these works, which will elevate Turkey's defense power, capacity, and deterrence both in the sky and in the blue homeland, will be beneficial and auspicious for our country and nation.

"WE HAVE REACHED A LEVEL THAT IMPRESSES THE WHOLE WORLD"

Valuable guests, dear brothers, I want to express clearly from the outset that deterrence cannot be measured solely by the number of systems and platforms we possess. Today, the decisive factors of deterrence are the software that gives intelligence to the platforms, secure data flow, uninterrupted communication, and cyber resilience. For this reason, we see digital sovereignty in the defense field as an integral part of our national security. The investments we will commission, inaugurate, and lay the foundations for today are a continuation of strategic moves that will enhance the holistic capacity and impact of our defense ecosystem. With these facilities and platforms, our engineering processes will accelerate even further, our testing and validation discipline will strengthen, our training and simulation capabilities will expand, and the software-based capabilities of our naval and air elements will hopefully be elevated even higher. You know best the truth that security and defense are never one-dimensional. A strong defense architecture must encompass every area, from the depths of the sea to space, from land to cyber security. Thanks to the leaps we have made in unmanned technologies over the past 23 years, we have now reached a level that impresses the whole world.

"WE HAVE REDUCED THE LEVEL OF DEPENDENCY TO 20%"

We reached this level patiently despite the obstacles posed by those we consider friends and allies. We reached it with determination. We reached it by meticulously planning every move down to the finest detail. We have reduced the level of dependency, which was once at eighty percent, to twenty percent. Our engineers, technicians, companies, and shipyards have written a historic success story in the air, on land, and at sea. Thanks be to God, there is now a Turkey that designs its own technology, produces its own software, and exports its products to the whole world. There is now a Turkey that meets not only the security needs of its own army but also, if requested, those of its friends, brothers, and allies.

"THERE IS A TURKEY THAT IMPLEMENTS THE 3T MODEL"

Now there is a Turkey that implements the 3T model, meaning detection, diagnosis, and attack processes with its domestic and national technology, a Turkey whose star is rising in the world. I would like to express with great pride that today Turkey is one of the ten countries in the world that develops and launches its own warship into the sea.

Dear brothers and sisters, how did we achieve these successes? First and foremost, we believed in ourselves. We trusted our esteemed nation. We invested in the youth of this country and opened up opportunities for them. We embarked on this path by asking, if others can do it, why can't we? We adopted and implemented the ideal of a fully independent Turkey as a determined state policy in the field of defense. We transformed our systems, platforms, and infrastructure, especially our critical technologies, into a continuously evolving and renewing technology ecosystem. I remember very well the old days, 22 years ago when I came to HAVELSAN, when we experienced simulators of foreign air platforms and felt the limits of dependency in every field. Today, we can simulate our domestic and national platforms ourselves, managing critical processes with our own software and engineering. In this great transformation, HAVELSAN, like our other institutions, has a significant share and contribution. I would like to express with great pride and satisfaction that HAVELSAN, with its projects and works, is one of our institutions that constitutes the digital backbone of our defense power in areas such as command control, simulation, training, cybersecurity, and autonomous capabilities. HAVELSAN is a strategic force multiplier that grows Turkey's defense power with software, deepens it with intelligence, and accelerates it with integration.

Look, our HAVELSAN is currently carrying out very important projects, fulfilling a vital mission for the future of Turkey. One of these is the cloud computing system project. When this project is completed, the operations in the headquarters of our Turkish Armed Forces will be managed in real-time with HAVELSAN's command control software, using manned and unmanned systems. This system, which will be protected by the domestic cyber shield developed by HAVELSAN, will strengthen our strategic, operational, and tactical capabilities. It is also important to note that if a country's software is not national, a secure future cannot be spoken of in that country. Therefore, full independence cannot be considered separately from technological independence.

With this understanding, we initiated our national technology move in the software sector by stating that Turkey's data should remain in Turkey. We coded Turkey's most critical data with the software of our national and reliable institutions like HAVELSAN. We are protecting and strengthening the infrastructure of our institutions with HAVELSAN's national engineering product, the Kovan Next Generation Business Management System. I would like to thank all members of the HAVELSAN family once again on behalf of myself and my nation for their significant contributions to our defense and information systems. We have worked tirelessly to bring the cause and ideals of our late brother Özdemir Bayraktar from potential to action, to nurture the seeds sown by many raiders and heroes like him. A system that will force this nation, which has been incapable of making even a pin for a hundred years, to make its radio, car, tractor, and sewing machine, even if you make them out of tin, but to make them yourself. Thanks to Allah, we have succeeded in establishing that magnificent order depicted by Master Necip Fazıl in the defense industry. Insha'Allah, we will continue on our path with the same determination, enthusiasm, and resolve.

"WE HAVE NO EYE ON ANYONE'S INCH OF LAND"

Valuable guests, this point is often overlooked in the world; knowing how to do something is certainly important, but even more important is knowing why you are doing it. We develop all these technologies because we have a purpose, a goal, and a cause, to build the Turkey Century, where we will leave our mark on the century as a nation. I would like to share again with you a point I have mentioned on different occasions; we have no eye on anyone's inch of land. We are never in pursuit of a power and influence based on oppression. Our only concern is to build a Turkey that contributes to global peace and security, tranquility, and stability at the highest level, together with our region. It is to build a Turkey that everyone, friend and foe alike, is assured of its principled stance, whose words, attitudes, and actions are closely followed by the whole world; this is why we put our hands and, when necessary, our bodies under the stone. We will continue on our path in a way that is worthy of our history and values, fulfilling the rights of being a great nation, insha'Allah.