SSM head: "The nation's defense will buy Turkish"

Turkey will boost the share of national production in the defense industry, according to Murad Bayar, Turkey's top procurement official and head of the Defense Industries Undersecretariat (SSM), following directives from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Sunday's reelection of the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AK Party) effectively means that the country's procurement requirements will be met by local manufacturers "whenever and wherever possible" for the foreseeable future, according to analysts. "It is an established policy to go as Turkish as much as possible," said Bayar recently. "In the years ahead, we will increasingly see locally designed and developed weapons systems which we had traditionally imported in the past." In 2002, Turkey was mostly a buyer of defense equipment and systems, but has transformed under successive AK Party administrations into a manufacturer or co-manufacturer of most of its military requirements.