Over 1,700 defense companies head to Türkiye's SAHA 2026 to unveil hundreds of new drones and weapons.

Türkiye confirmed the organization of SAHA 2026 at the Istanbul Expo Center, where over 1,700 defense companies will showcase more than 300 new drones, weapons, and military products from May 5 to May 9, 2026.

The event concentrates on large-scale system unveilings and procurement engagements, reinforcing Türkiye’s role as a rapidly expanding supplier of deployable military capabilities across air, land, naval, and space domains. SAHA 2026 will gather industrial players, official delegations, and research institutions across a 110,000 m² exhibition space, integrating live demonstrations, product launches, and structured negotiations. The scale and format directly support accelerated acquisition cycles and interoperability, enabling NATO and partner forces to access scalable, combat-ready systems aligned with evolving battlefield demands.

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Türkiye's SAHA 2026 will take place from May 5 to 9, 2026, at the Istanbul Expo Center, with more than 1,700 companies, official delegations, universities, and sector participants expected to attend within a 110,000 m² exhibition space. (Picture source: SAHA)

On April 8, 2026, Türkiye's SAHA 2026 was confirmed to take place from May 5 to 9, 2026, at the Istanbul Expo Center, with more than 1,700 companies, official delegations, universities, and sector participants expected to attend within a 110,000 m² exhibition space. SAHA (for “Savunma, Havacılık ve Uzay”, which translates to “Defence, Aviation and Space”) is scheduled for five days and is structured as both a commercial exchange and a coordination environment linking procurement demand, industrial production and policy dialogue. The timing coincides with increased defence spending across NATO and partner countries and a redistribution of defence demand toward diversified suppliers able to deliver quickly and at scale, particularly for UAVs, ammunition, and naval systems.

The exhibition also consolidates multiple functions that are usually separated across procurement missions, bilateral visits and industry forums. Its format concentrates negotiation, system presentation and institutional engagement in a single location. The scale of participation indicates a continuation of expansion observed between earlier editions, with 56% of the country's defense exports going to EU, NATO, and U.S. customers. The event is intended to support a direct interaction between all of these governmental buyers, prime contractors, subcontractors, and technology firms. Türkiye's industrial activity also indicates scaling, as the participants to SAHA 2026 span across 53 sectors across defence, aerospace, and associated industrial domains, including materials, electronics, software and manufacturing systems, allowing both system integrators and component suppliers to operate within the same framework.

The inclusion of procurement delegations and hosted buyers introduces defined acquisition demand into the event rather than relying on general attendance. Structured B2B, G2B, and G2G meeting formats are used to enable direct negotiation channels, with state-backed procurement mechanisms playing a central role in contract development. The expanded exhibition footprint compared to 2024 increases the capacity for both system display and bilateral meetings. Academic institutions and research organisations are included to support integration of emerging technologies into existing supply chains. The event’s UFI certification indicates compliance with international exhibition standards and supports participation from institutional actors and export-oriented companies.

The composition of participants reflects a distributed industrial model involving primes, SMEs, and specialised technology firms. The SAHA's programme integrates policy and industrial components through international panels, keynote sessions and roundtables focused on defence planning, capability requirements, and technology integration. Product launch sessions are scheduled within the programme, typically in fixed presentation slots, allowing companies to present systems directly to procurement officials and delegations. Signing ceremonies are organised to coincide with negotiation outcomes, enabling agreements to be formalised during the event rather than in separate processes.

The presence of national and thematic pavilions allows countries and industrial clusters to present coordinated capabilities and export offers. NATO NIF-related activities are incorporated, linking the event to alliance-level innovation frameworks and capability development initiatives. Structured networking sessions are designed to connect suppliers with government buyers and international partners. The programme structure reduces the time between initial contact, technical presentation, and contract negotiation. Technological coverage includes land systems such as armoured vehicles and weapon systems ($4.7 billion of Türkiye's exports in 2025 consisted of weapons and ammunition alone).

Naval assets will include surface vessels and subsystems, aerospace systems such as aircraft and UAVs, missile and guided munitions, and space-related technologies, including satellites and communication systems. Additional domains include robotics, air defence systems, military electronics, C4ISR, and software-driven capabilities such as cybersecurity and data processing. Both complete systems and subsystem-level components are represented, allowing integration across supply chains. The emphasis is placed on systems that are in production or near deployment, reflecting procurement demand for short delivery timelines. Unmanned systems across air, land and naval domains are a central component, consistent with operational use in recent conflicts.

Digital technologies are integrated across multiple sectors, including AI-enabled functions and software-defined capabilities. The cross-domain structure links defence, aerospace, and space industries into a unified industrial environment. Live demonstration activities include the FPV Drone Zone, which presents real-time unmanned aerial operations under dynamic conditions, and the SAHA UGV Challenge, which evaluates ground vehicle mobility and mission performance in controlled environments. The SAHA Rover Challenge extends this approach to robotic systems designed for space and remote operations. The Outdoor and Naval Exhibition Area has been expanded to allow full-scale systems, including maritime assets, to be displayed and operated. Increased accessibility compared to 2024 supports higher attendance and closer observation of system performance.

Demonstrations are structured to provide observable operational data rather than a static display. These activities are also linked to procurement evaluation processes, allowing buyers to assess performance characteristics directly. The focus on live testing conditions reflects increased demand for validated operational capability. The exhibition is expected to include more than 300 product launches across land, air, sea, space, and cyber domains, with systems presented through scheduled sessions targeting procurement officials and institutional delegations. These launches include first-time public disclosures and systems entering export markets, indicating alignment with production readiness.

Presentation formats are standardised to allow comparison between competing systems and to communicate technical specifications, delivery timelines, and integration requirements. The concentration of launches within a five-day period increases the density of new system introductions. This structure allows procurement officials to evaluate multiple systems within a limited timeframe. Product presentations are coordinated with meeting schedules to enable immediate follow-on discussions. The volume of launches indicates a high level of industrial output and competition across participating companies. Data from SAHA EXPO 2024 provides a reference point for expected outcomes, with 1,478 companies from more than 120 countries participating and over 25,000 organised business meetings conducted.

The event resulted in 133 signing ceremonies linked to formal agreements and generated a total business volume of $6.2 billion. These figures, as well as export data, indicate that in the following year at least 185 Turkish companies individually exported more than $1 million, an amount that is almost equal to the total value of Türkiye's defense exports in 2002, namely $248 million. The increase in participation for 2026 suggests a higher volume of meetings and potential agreements. The structured meeting formats contributed to this number of agreements by enabling direct negotiation between buyers and suppliers, which requires coordination between government procurement authorities, export financing mechanisms, and private industry.

The financial outcome demonstrates the role of the exhibition as a contract generation environment rather than a promotional event. In Türkiye’s case, SAHA 2026 operates as a coordination mechanism linking industrial production, export activity, and government procurement within a single framework. The event supports technology transfer, co-production agreements, and long-term industrial partnerships across multiple regions. It aligns with Türkiye’s objective to increase defence exports and expand industrial capacity while reducing reliance on external suppliers. In 2025, Türkiye’s defence sector signed $17.8 billion in new contracts, compared to $10 billion in 2024, representing a 78% increase in order intake.

The integration of policy dialogue, industrial display, and contract negotiation at SAHA 2026 aligns with current defence trade practices, where state involvement remains central. The Turkish event, therefore, provides a structured environment for aligning national procurement requirements with available industrial capabilities. It also facilitates interaction between established defence manufacturers and emerging technology firms. The overall structure indicates a shift toward integrated procurement and industrial coordination models, as the defense sector’s share of Türkiye’s total exports increased from 1.7% in 2022 to 3.6–3.7% in 2025, allowing Türkiye to be ranked among the top 10–11 exporters globally.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.