Turkey’s ambitious aviation industry due to get new major facilities

To strengthen its claim in the aviation industry, Turkey will officially launch several facilities, including the much-anticipated National Combat Aircraft (MMU)’s Engineering Center and the Composite Production Building in a ceremony to be held on Jan. 6.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is also expected to attend the ceremony to be held at the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) facility – the institution that will run the new centers, an Anadolu Agency (AA) report said Wednesday.

The MMU Engineering Center was established with an investment of TL 220 million (about $16.3 million). It will employ some 2,300 people where the works on the national combat jet, dubbed “Turkey’s survival project,” will be maintained.

Equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, the engineers will be able to carry out all their activities at the center without an external dependence.

The long-awaited defense industry project, TF-X MMU is a fifth-generation jet with similar features to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II that is being developed with the contribution of several local defense firms with TAI as the main contractor. The domestically built aircraft is being developed to replace the Turkish air force’s F-16 fighters as they are gradually phased out throughout the 2030s.

The MMU will be unveiled for the first time on March 18, 2023, and will make its maiden flight in 2026.

The Composite Production Building, meanwhile, was established with an investment worth around TL 412 million.

The factory will be Turkey’s largest and the world’s 4th largest composite facility under a single roof.

The Composite Production Building consists of 19 blocks, including the main production center, paint shop and auxiliary buildings.

Some 150 engineers and 850 technicians will be employed at the facility, which has the capacity to meet 2% of the world’s air structural composites market.