The €1.47 billion contract and what Aselsan disclosed
On 10 July 2026 Aselsan filed a disclosure to Türkiye’s Public Disclosure Platform announcing a contract worth approximately €1.47 billion (about $1.68 billion) with the Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) to expand serial production of air-defence systems. The company described the agreement as an addition to ongoing serial-production projects and said it is expected to increase revenue. The disclosure did not include a delivery timetable and did not specify which systems the new contract covers.
Steel Dome (Çelik Kubbe): an integrated, multi-layer architecture
Aselsan is the lead contractor for Steel Dome, known in Turkish as Çelik Kubbe, which the company and Turkish officials describe as a multi-layered, integrated air- and missile-defence architecture. According to the disclosure, Steel Dome links air-defence weapons, radars, electro‑optical systems, communications modules and command-and-control stations under a single network to build a common air picture in real time. Aselsan also supplies HAKİM, described in the disclosure as Türkiye’s first domestically developed air command-and-control system; HAKİM coordinates the architecture’s sensors and weapons so different air-defence elements operate together, and the network passes correlated tracks to artificial‑intelligence‑supported decision tools that automate threat evaluation and weapon assignment.
How the layers fit together: Hisar, Siper and the lower tiers
The disclosure and accompanying reporting place individual systems into distinct altitude bands. At the lower tier, gun- and short-range systems such as the Korkut anti-aircraft gun and the Gürz hybrid gun-and-missile system handle close‑in threats including drones and low‑flying missiles. The Hisar family — developed jointly by Aselsan and Roketsan, with warheads produced by research institute TÜBİTAK SAGE — occupies the short- and medium-range interceptor layers: Hisar‑A protects mobile and armoured units against low‑altitude threats, while Hisar‑O provides medium‑altitude point and regional defence. Above them, the domestically developed Siper family extends coverage into the long‑range and ballistic‑missile‑defence tier.
Parallel contracts, recent demonstrations and industrial scale
The €1.47 billion award supplements a run of large air‑defence contracts. Aselsan signed a $1.9 billion Steel Dome deal with the SSB in September 2025 and a €780 million ($900 million) agreement in June 2026; the June contract included component deliveries expected between 2028 and 2032. Aselsan has also invested $1.5 billion in a dedicated Steel Dome facility that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described as the largest integrated air-defence facility in Europe. The SSB separately signed additional serial‑production contracts with Aselsan and Roketsan for the Hisar‑A and Hisar‑O systems alongside the July disclosure.
Exercise EFES, SAHA 2026 and the evolution from shield to architecture
The integrated architecture first deployed as a combined system at Exercise EFES 2026 in May, when Siper, Hisar‑O, Hisar‑A, Sungur and electronic‑warfare layers were positioned together for a live demonstration in front of 50 national delegations. At SAHA 2026 the same month, Aselsan unveiled six additional systems spanning electronic warfare, laser and high‑power‑microwave anti‑swarm weapons while the SSB announced contracts for the Siper‑A and Siper‑4 ballistic‑missile‑defence layers. Together, those moves underscore the shift of Steel Dome from a short‑range shield into a full‑spectrum architecture that reaches from very‑low‑altitude drones and cruise missiles up to high‑altitude ballistic threats.
What this means for Aselsan, the SSB, and international customers
- Aselsan and suppliers (Roketsan, TÜBİTAK SAGE): the contract expands serial production volumes and follows significant capital investment in a dedicated Steel Dome facility; it also builds on recent awards that include deliveries for 2028–2032, implying multi‑year manufacturing and supply-chain activity.
- The Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) and Turkish defence policymakers: the additional contracts for Hisar‑A and Hisar‑O and the framing of expanded production as part of reinforcing Türkiye’s air‑defence architecture and its obligations within NATO indicate a coordinated push to field an integrated, layered capability.
- International customers and delegations: Aselsan reported that international orders doubled over the past year, citing demand fuelled by conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East; the public demonstrations at EFES 2026 and SAHA 2026 were staged in front of foreign delegations and accompany export-facing production scale‑up.
Aselsan’s July 10 disclosure confirms another sizable tranche of state‑backed procurement that deepens a program already backed by multi‑billion‑dollar contracts and large capital expenditure. The company and the SSB are positioning Steel Dome as an expanding, multi‑tiered architecture; what remains publicly unspecified in this announcement are the precise systems covered and the delivery schedule for the new €1.47 billion award — details that will shape production flow and export timelines in the years ahead.
