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During the 2025 International Defence Exhibition and Fair (IDEF 2025), Pakistan’s Global Industrial & Defence Solutions (GIDS) signed an agreement with Turkey’s Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) to ‘cooperate on aerospace munitions.’ It was a key achievement, which GIDS is trying to build upon with its stronger marketing push, especially in new markets for the Pakistani defence industry, like Latin America.
Speaking with Quwa, GIDS CEO Asad Kamal highlighted that “collaboration between the Turkish and Pakistani industry has much more potential than where it is today,” but major challenges persist stopping the two from capitalizing on their synergistic potential.
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There has been significant traction in the sphere of naval cooperation, with the Pakistan Navy (PN) awarding Turkey’s STM a contract to modernize its Agosta 90B submarines and signing a $1.5 billion-dollar-plus deal with ASFAT A.S to build four Babur-class (MILGEM) corvettes and co-develop the original Jinnah-class frigate (AS3400). In addition, the PN has also worked with MilSOFT to develop Link Green, its tactical data-link (TDL) architecture. Moreover, key Turkish state-owned enterprises (SOE), like Aselsan and Havelsan, are also involved in supplying core inputs, like radars and combat management systems (CMS), respectively, to the PN.
The PAF contracted Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) to carry out the Mid-Life Update (MLU) on up to 45 F-16A/B Block-15 in the early 2010s. It also procured Aselsan ASELPOD targeting pods for use on the JF-17C Block-3. Currently, the PAF also has an ongoing engagement with Baykar Group, acquiring the latter’s Bayraktar TB2 and Akinci drones. However, aside from the limited or one-off purchases, there has not been any substantive engagement between Turkish SOEs like TAI or Aselsan and the PAF.
Finally, the Turkish industry has not been able to make any significant inroads into the Pakistan Army (PA) market. It had gotten close by securing a $1.5 billion USD contract to supply 30 TAI T129 ATAK attack helicopters, but that fell through due to US pressure. With the exception of a small number of ad hoc light armoured vehicle purchases, Turkey could not enter the Pakistani land systems market (with the Chinese industry dominating armour, artillery, air defence, attack helicopter, and, possibly in the near future, wheeled armoured fighting vehicle requirements).
Likewise, the Pakistani industry has also had difficulty participating within the Turkish market. Granted, the Turkish Armed Forces can broadly leverage domestic suppliers for their needs, but even in low-cost segments where a niche was opened to Pakistan, the latter was not able to capitalize as effectively as hoped. For example, the TurAF awarded Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) a contract to supply 52 Super Mushshak trainers in 2017; however, the first three of these were only delivered in 2022, i.e., a full five years after the contract was signed. Yes, the pandemic was a delaying factor, but before that, PAC committed to delivering three units in 2020, i.e., three years after signing the contract. For a comparatively simple aircraft, this is still a long turnaround time, highlighting inherent issues within PAC’s processes rather than external factors like the pandemic.
Fundamentally, it will not be possible for the Pakistani industry to supply more to the Turkish defence market unless the Pakistani military buys into more Turkish programs. Ultimately, the Turkish inventive to support offsets is tied to its defence exports. In other words, it is a trade – i.e., a big-ticket Pakistani order in return for commercial engagement with Pakistani vendors.
For example, TAI had told Quwa at IDEAS 2018 that, as part of the T129 deal with the Army, TAI would explore setting up a regional support and servicing centre in Pakistan. This centre would provide depot-level maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services, training, and, potentially, production work for TAI solutions heading to the Central Asian market. While the deal did not materialize, TAI did set up a local office within Pakistan, which invests in talent within the country while leveraging them for various TAI projects.
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