Turkish defense firm launches Jordan subsidiary

Turkish military electronic defense systems corporation ASELSAN launched a production plant via a joint partnership between the Turkish firm and a Jordanian company at an inaugural reception in Amman, Jordan, on Monday.

The Aselsan Middle East (AME) venture is a joint effort between ASELSAN and King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB), the latter of which owns 51 percent of the new production plant while 49 percent is owned by ASELSAN, Turkey's largest military defense corporation. The inauguration was attended by Jordan's King Abdullah, who offered his support for the venture. Turkey's Deputy Defense Minister Kemal Yardımcı was also in attendance at the ceremony.

The joint venture with Jordan comes after ASELSAN established a plant in Kazakhstan last year along with a Kazakh firm at a cost of $44 million, indicating that the Turkish firm is engaged in expanding its global reach. The AME partnership seeks to produce border security equipment for Jordan's military and may do so for other regional militaries, officials said.

In recent years, ASELSAN has increasingly funneled money towards research and development (R&D) spending. ASELSAN's R&D spending totaled TL 728 million in 2013, an increase of 25.3 percent over the previous year. The company's R&D spending was at TL 378 million in 2010, TL 447 million in 2011 and TL 581 in 2012. The number of employees working at ASELSAN's R&D center has also increased over the years, standing at 1,469 in 2009 and 2,293 in 2013. Meanwhile, the firm's sales totaled TL 2.17 billion in 2013, with a net profit of TL 238 million.

ASELSAN, established by the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation at the end of 1975, is a Turkish corporation that produces tactical military radios and defense electronic systems for the Turkish army.