The Turks are stealing customers from the Russian defense industry and President Putin doesn’t like that at all.
Turkey’s state-owned defense company ASFAT is expanding its production capabilities, as well as its customer base, to the Africa and Middle East region. This is estimated to have negative consequences for the Russian defense industry, let’s see why.
Turkey Becomes a Regional “Player”
In more detail, the Turkish defense company ASFAT is now clear that it seeks to become a regional military aircraft maintenance center, both in the African region and in the Middle East region.
To achieve this, the company has already ordered new equipment, while it is in negotiations with foreign partners and countries.
The company’s CEO, Mustafa Ilbas, told Western defense media outlet Breaking Defense that the company has begun working with European aerospace giant Airbus. As a result of this cooperation, ASFAT has now acquired the authorization to carry out various maintenance and repair procedures on A-400M aircraft.
Military analysts and aerospace experts say the development is particularly important for Turkey. The maintenance and repair of foreign military aircraft is a very profitable industry, meaning Ankara could enjoy significant profits from ASFAT’s activities.
This is why Russia is not at all happy with the expansion plans of the Turkish state-owned company. The increase in ASFAT’s customer base is expected to have the exact opposite effect for Russia, which to this day maintains and repairs the aircraft of several countries in Africa and the Middle East itself.
And as if all this were not enough, Ankara also has ambitions for expansion in the Central Asian region, a region particularly crucial for Moscow. Russia’s influence in this part of the world dates back centuries.
Specifically, ASFAT is one step away from finalizing a new agreement for the maintenance and repair of A-400M aircraft operated by the Kazakh Air Force.
The good news for the Russians is that so far ASFAT has only been taking on Western-style aircraft, such as Airbus’ A-400 and Lockheed C-130 transport planes (which are also in service in Turkey). But in the future, the Turks could expand to new types of platforms, which worries the Russians.
