Türkiye Defense Brief, September 2026: Signed at Home, Cleared Abroad

HERDEM Attorneys at Law has published the September 2026 edition of its monthly Türkiye Defense Brief, which examines the month’s defence developments from a legal and contracting perspective.

This edition is built around one theme. Türkiye now certifies, funds and contracts at a pace few defence markets can match. The approvals it still needs from other governments, however, run on a different timetable.

September showed both speeds clearly. The Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) granted the Hürkuş-II trainer its military type certificate on 9 September, and the first two aircraft entered the Turkish Air Force inventory on 28 September. Over the same period, the CAATSA sanctions on the SSB remained in force, more than two months after relief was announced in July.

The edition covers:

• The 2027 to 2029 Medium-Term Programme, including the announced 229 per cent increase in defence spending and the extension of the long-term procurement model to civil strategic sectors.
• Certification and export control, and why a type certificate does not settle who may export an aircraft that contains foreign components.
• The €1.23 billion ASELSAN and ROKETSAN subcontract, and what it shows about public disclosure limits and flow-down risk for suppliers.
• August export figures, and how contracts should allocate the risk of export permit timing.
• Joint development in Europe, including the MKE and PGZ memorandum of understanding signed at MSPO.
• The Türkiye and Brazil Defence Industry Cooperation Agreement, approved by Presidential Decision No. 11799 and published on 18 September.
• Missile Technology Control Regime considerations following the Akıncı and UAV-300 test.
• Training programmes as controlled transfers, from Çorlu to RAF Coningsby.
• Cross-border structuring, and why a foreign subsidiary adds a control regime rather than removing one.

The edition ends with a practical point for anyone contracting in this market: identify which obligations depend on Turkish decisions and which depend on foreign approvals, and write the consequences of delay into the contract before the delay occurs.

The full edition is available on our LinkedIn newsletter