Erdoğan: Our goal is to incorporate domestically-produced fighter jet KAAN into Turkish air force by the end of 2028

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at a local election rally organized by the ruling Justice and Development [AK] Party in the Aegean province of Denizli.
During his speech at a local election rally in Türkiye's Denizli province on Thursday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan underlined the goal of integrating the Turkish-made fighter jet KAAN into our military fleet by the end of 2028.

Erdoğan laid out the following keynotes in his speech:
"We have aligned our country with the ambitious development project of the first century of our republic, the 2023 targets. Similarly, we will also achieve the vision of the second century of our republic, the Turkish Century. The most important thing we need to do for this is to preserve our unity, solidarity, and brotherhood. We see the upcoming elections as the first steps to prepare our cities for the Turkish Century with this understanding.

One of the most important pillars of our vision for the Turkish Century is to elevate our country to the top league in defense industry and technology. Despite many obstacles and covert embargoes, we are constantly improving ourselves in this field. In just the past year, we have officially launched dozens of projects in air, land, and sea platforms. We have increased the share of domestic production from around 20% when we took office to around 80%. We put an end to the country that used to procure most of its weapons from abroad even for combating terrorism. Now, everything is ours; we produce them ourselves. We can now produce almost all the weapons we need with our own capabilities. Moreover, we can export them to friendly and brotherly countries.

Last year, we achieved $5.5 billion in defense exports. We are one of the 10 countries in the world that build our own warships. Not only do we design and produce our ships ourselves, but we also develop many technologies from weapon systems to radars. Unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs, UCAVs, AKINCI, and now our latest KAAN. But we have another very important step. We sent our astronaut into space. With the service entry of KIZILELMA and ANKA-3, we are breaking new ground in this field and have also launched our KAAN into the sky. Our 5th generation fighter aircraft KAAN successfully completed its maiden flight. KAAN, the result of about 15 years of effort and determination, passed another crucial threshold with yesterday's test. God willing, we plan to integrate KAAN into our air force by the end of 2028.

Despite the painful period the global economy and our region are going through, we are mobilizing the resources of our state for our people. The closest witness to the sincere struggle we are waging to prevent our workers and retirees from being crushed by inflation is our nation itself. For the year 2024, we have made increases above the inflation rates for minimum wage earners, public servants, and retirees. We do not turn a deaf ear to the grievances of any of our people. We strive to meet the demands of our citizens even at the expense of pushing the limits of our budget. Hopefully, as inflation begins to decline rapidly by the end of this year, we will all breathe more easily together."