WDS 2026: Türkiye’s Havelsan Positions as Software-Driven Defense Integrator.

Havelsan unveiled a broad suite of software-driven defense solutions at World Defense Show 2026 in Riyadh, spanning command and control, simulation, firing ranges, war gaming, and autonomous systems. The showcase underscores Turkey’s growing ambition to export integrated, interoperable military architectures across air, land, and naval domains.

At World Defense Show 2026 in Riyadh, Turkish defense technology firm Havelsan presented an extensive portfolio of software-intensive military systems, positioning itself as a prime integrator capable of linking sensors, shooters, and command elements across multiple domains. The company’s exhibit covered advanced command and control platforms, simulation and training systems, live and virtual firing range solutions, operational war gaming tools, and autonomous technologies designed for both manned and unmanned platforms.
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Havelsan unveils integrated command and control, simulation, and autonomous systems at Riyadh’s World Defense Show 2026. (Picture source: Army Recognition)

Founded more than four decades ago, Havelsan has built its industrial identity around software-centric defense architectures rather than hardware manufacturing. This positioning allows the company to integrate equipment from virtually any global supplier into unified management and command frameworks. For armed forces, such an approach provides both operational flexibility and procurement autonomy, enabling the selection of platforms based on performance and cost considerations while maintaining coherence at the command level.

A central focus of Havelsan’s presence in Riyadh was command and control systems. These architectures are designed to connect sensors, shooters, and decision makers within a single digital ecosystem. By ensuring interoperability between air defense assets, ground formations, and naval units, the systems allow commanders to generate a real time operational picture and coordinate responses across multiple domains. In practice, such command networks shorten reaction cycles, improve target allocation, and reduce fratricide risks in complex environments.

Training and simulation formed the second pillar of the company’s presentation. Havelsan develops a wide spectrum of simulators, including helicopter and fixed wing flight simulators, parachute and sniper trainers, and armored vehicle simulators such as those for main battle tanks. These platforms replicate operational environments with high fidelity, allowing crews to rehearse procedures, emergency scenarios, and tactical engagements without the cost and risk associated with live operations. For air defense forces in particular, simulation environments can recreate dense threat scenarios, including coordinated missile and aircraft attacks, in near real conditions.

Beyond virtual training systems, Havelsan has delivered live firing ranges in several countries, including Türkiye and Saudi Arabia. These ranges enable air to ground and ground to air engagements using real platforms, allowing pilots and ground based air defense crews to train under controlled yet realistic conditions. Such facilities combine instrumentation, tracking systems, and data analysis tools to evaluate performance and refine tactics. The company is now working on upgrading these infrastructures into electronic warfare test and training ranges, where both real systems and emulators can be integrated to simulate radar jamming, electronic attack, and countermeasure scenarios. This evolution reflects the growing importance of the electromagnetic spectrum in contemporary conflicts.

War gaming capabilities attracted particular interest from Gulf countries. Havelsan’s digital war gaming environments allow military planners to design and test operational doctrines across air, land, and naval components. Within these platforms, brigades can be organized, scenarios scripted, and alternative courses of action evaluated. The systems enable the modeling of friendly and adversary forces, logistics flows, and command structures, offering diagnostic tools to assess readiness and doctrinal coherence. By integrating existing national hardware and software into these simulations, armed forces can test their actual force structures in a synthetic battlespace that mirrors real world constraints.

Parallel to its simulation and command activities, Havelsan has increased investments in autonomous systems over the past years. The company now develops Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV), Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV), and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). A USV can conduct maritime surveillance, reconnaissance, or mine countermeasure missions, depending on payload configuration, while reducing risks to human crews. UGV platforms are typically designed for reconnaissance, logistics support, or armed roles in contested environments, offering remote or semi autonomous operation. UAV systems provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities with extended endurance and can be configured for strike missions when equipped with appropriate munitions.

While earlier generations of these platforms operated largely as stand alone systems, Havelsan is now focusing on artificial intelligence enabled autonomy and swarming concepts. Swarming allows multiple unmanned systems to coordinate their movements and tasks autonomously, overwhelming defenses or covering wider areas through distributed operations. The company is also exploring joint swarming between different domains, for example combining UGVs and UAVs under a unified command structure. Such cross domain cooperation requires robust data links, shared situational awareness, and advanced decision algorithms to synchronize actions in dynamic environments.

To orchestrate these complex force structures, Havelsan promotes its concept of Defense Out of the Box, a deployable command and control solution designed to manage brigades and integrate autonomous assets within a unified framework. By coupling this system with simulation and war gaming environments, armed forces can continuously train, test, and refine their doctrines even in peacetime. This approach enables iterative learning cycles, where operational concepts are evaluated digitally before being implemented in field exercises.

The discussions held in Riyadh suggest that regional militaries are prioritizing integrated command architectures, realistic training infrastructures, and scalable autonomous capabilities. In this context, Havelsan’s emphasis on software centric integration rather than proprietary hardware reflects a broader shift in defense planning, where interoperability, data fusion, and adaptability increasingly define combat effectiveness across the Middle East and beyond.