2026 Reset: Türkiye Bets Big on Defense and Tech

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or several years, Türkiye has prioritized technological development, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), in its national vision. This trajectory began with the National Technological Move (Milli Teknoloji Hamlesi) framework, continued with the National AI Strategy, and has since expanded to include the integration of AI across multiple sectors, such as defense, health, education, agriculture, and public administration. Each year, Türkiye’s policies in this area have become more proactive, structured, and strategically coordinated. One of the clearest reflections of this evolution is evident in the recently released 2026 Presidential Annual Program.

These programs are important policy instruments because they outline Türkiye’s priorities, targets, and strategic direction for the coming year. Therefore, examining the 2026 Program offers valuable insight into how Türkiye envisions the role of AI within its broader technological and geopolitical landscape.

From this perspective, the 2026 Presidential Annual Program represents a pivotal moment in national technology policy. While previous editions acknowledged technological transformation, most notably the 2025 Program, the 2026 document elevates AI to a central position in state strategy. AI is no longer presented as a tool for modernization, but rather as infrastructure for national power, closely linked to economic sovereignty, military capability, and institutional reform.

This shift is especially noteworthy because the 2026 Program treats AI as a strategic, regulated, cross-government capability. To understand the significance of this change, it is important to examine how AI is integrated into the program’s broader governance philosophy.

How AI appears across the 2026 program

The 2026 Presidential Annual Program differs from its predecessors in that it integrates artificial intelligence into state planning to a much greater degree. Unlike earlier programs, which featured AI sporadically or only within specific technological chapters, the 2026 document presents AI as a central component in nearly every major policy area. AI is present not only in defense, but also in tax administration, customs risk management, hospital decision-making, public health monitoring, drug supply chains, agricultural analytics, environmental assessment, citizen-state communication platforms, and public-sector training. In each case, AI is presented as a means to improve accuracy, eliminate inefficiencies, combat informality, and strengthen the state’s administrative capabilities.

Furthermore, the 2026 Program stands out not only because AI is spread across multiple domains, but also because a coherent regulatory and ethical framework has emerged to govern its use. For the first time, the Annual Program outlines a structured approach to establishing ethical and legal principles for AI applications in the public sector. The Program introduces a formal system for assessing AI-related risks within government institutions and proposes creating an AI management system through which public-sector AI tools will be certified, standardized, and monitored. This is a significant change from the 2025 Program, which only anticipated secondary regulations and basic risk awareness measures, but did not present a comprehensive governance structure.

The administrative implications are significant. Rather than treating AI as an experimental add-on or a future possibility, the 2026 Program integrates it into the daily routines of governance. Rather, it integrates AI into the daily routines of governance. Continuous digital assistance for taxpayers, machine learning–supported customs controls, and automated risk assessments in social security and fiscal policy demonstrate that AI has transitioned from the fringes of state operations to its core. It can now be argued that AI is not just being applied through isolated pilot projects, but is being institutionalized as a standard instrument of public service delivery.

These developments collectively represent a shift in the state’s understanding of AI. Türkiye is transitioning from an adoption model, in which AI is incorporated into specific projects, to a governance model, in which AI becomes subject to regulation, oversight, and ethical responsibility. The 2026 Program acknowledges that AI is not just a technology to be deployed, but rather, it is a field that necessitates its own institutional framework. This evolution signals the beginning of a more mature phase in Türkiye’s approach to AI.

The Defense sector: AI as a strategic capability

Although AI has spread across many civilian sectors, its most consequential strategic impact emerges in the defense domain. Türkiye’s defense industry has grown rapidly over the past two decades, reaching record export levels and surpassing an 80 percent indigenous production rate by 2023. However, the 2026 Presidential Annual Program marks a turning point because it is the first time that AI has been explicitly classified as a breakthrough technology at the core of defense modernization.

AI enters Türkiye’s defense ecosystem in several critical ways. Most notably, it is the foundation of at least nine ongoing research and development (R&D) projects led by the Defense Industries Presidency (SSB). These initiatives include autonomous platforms, drone swarm coordination — widely regarded as the future of aerial warfare — advanced ISR systems, and cognitive electronic warfare technologies. Their inclusion reflects Türkiye’s growing recognition of how rapidly the nature of conflict is evolving.

For example, swarm drones can saturate and confuse enemy defenses, operate autonomously in tightly coordinated formations, and adapt to battlefield conditions in real time, giving militaries a significant operational advantage. Therefore, the fact that such technologies are embedded in a national strategy is far from symbolic. It signals a deliberate effort to prepare for a battlefield where success is defined by speed, autonomy, and information dominance.

In this context, AI is treated not as an auxiliary upgrade, but as a horizontal enabler that cuts across platforms, subsystems, and domains. AI functions as a sensor, an autonomy layer, and a decision-support engine simultaneously, making it integral to the architecture of next-generation military systems and to Türkiye’s broader vision for technologically sovereign defense capabilities.

Reliance on foreign datasets

AI’s expanding role also aligns with Türkiye’s strategic goal of reducing external technological dependence. These developments unfold within the framework of the National Technology Initiative, which aims to increase the share of indigenous production to 83 percent by 2026.

However, AI-enabled defense systems that rely on foreign datasets, imported model architectures, or externally controlled cloud environments introduce deep structural vulnerabilities. For this reason, the 2026 Program emphasizes the importance of local AI models, sovereign computational capacity, and secure data infrastructures. The emphasis is on more than just adopting AI; it must strengthen national autonomy rather than create new dependencies.

The Program’s strengthened focus on dual-use technological development is equally significant. Artificial intelligence (AI), often described as a force multiplier, gains strategic value precisely because it operates across civilian and military domains. Leading technological powers, particularly the United States and China, place dual-use AI at the center of their innovation strategies.

They recognize that breakthroughs in one sphere rapidly accelerate advancements in the other. Türkiye’s 2026 program decisively moves in this direction. While the 2025 Program referenced the potential for transferring military-developed capabilities to civilian industries and highlighted the role of technology mapping platforms, such as YETEN, the 2026 Program takes it a step further by proposing the creation of a formal dual-use roadmap.

This roadmap aims to institutionalize two-way technological circulation. Military AI innovations, such as autonomous coordination algorithms, advanced computer vision, and real-time analytics, can be adapted for civilian applications in precision agriculture, energy optimization, autonomous logistics, and smart manufacturing. Conversely, advances in civilian AI markets, such as natural language processing, image recognition, and predictive modeling, can be adapted for defense purposes more quickly and efficiently. This bidirectional flow reinforces both ecosystems, accelerates innovation cycles, and reduces costs.

In this sense, the 2026 Program’s approach to defense artificial intelligence (AI) reflects a broader shift in Türkiye’s technological strategy. Rather than treating AI merely as a set of tools to be integrated into existing systems, the program recognizes it as a foundational capability that reshapes industrial planning, defense doctrine, and national power dynamics. The consolidation of AI, indigenous production, and dual-use innovation indicates a transition to a more mature and strategically coherent model of technological statecraft.

What does the program signal?

The 2026 Presidential Annual Program represents a significant shift in Türkiye’s approach to artificial intelligence. Its significance lies in its detailed policy measures and what they reveal about the state’s evolving strategic vision. AI is no longer viewed as merely a tool for modernization; rather, it is considered essential infrastructure for national power, central to administrative performance, economic sovereignty, and military capability.

Overall, the program signals the emergence of a new strategic era. AI is no longer situated at the periphery of government planning, but rather, it is placed firmly at its center. The document reflects the clear recognition that a state’s ability to develop, govern, and effectively deploy AI-enabled systems will be crucial for future geopolitical influence. Instead of reactive adoption, Türkiye now anticipates proactively. The program operates as both a forward-looking roadmap and a strategic declaration. Türkiye intends to do more than simply adjust to the AI-driven transformation of global politics and future warfare; it intends to play an active role in shaping it.

(Originally published in Turkish by Kriter)