WHO ARE WE?

Our Mission

To develop the technological and sectoral competencies of its members and to create a strong ecosystem by supporting the cooperation among its members to increase the rate of domesticity of the Turkish defence, aerospace and space sector, to provide critical technologies that it does not have yet, and to move it to higher levels in international competition.

 

Our Vision

Being one of the world’s most influential clusters in the defence and aerospace sectors.

 

About SAHA Istanbul

Established with the mission to develop the technological and sectoral competencies of its members and to create a strong ecosystem by supporting the cooperation among its members to increase the rate of domesticity of the Turkish defence and aerospace industry, to provide Access to critical technologies that it does not have yet possessed, and to elevate its international competitiveness, SAHA Istanbul is the largest industrial cluster in Türkiye and Europe.

With its 1200+ member companies from 45 cities, including major contractors such as ASELSAN, Turkish Aerospace, Roketsan, STM, ASFAT, Military Shipyards, and BAYKAR, it contributes to our country's technology development capacity. Supported by the contributions of 29 universities, including ITU, YTU, Sabancı University, and all institutes of TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technologies Research Council of Türkiye), it aims to enhance university-industry collaboration.

Becoming the largest cluster of the European Aerospace Cluster Partnership (EACP), SAHA Istanbul brings together platform and subcontractor companies to create a foundation for business development. Under the leadership of SAHA Istanbul, the National Aviation Industry Committee (MİHENK) was established under the umbrella of the World Civil Aviation Quality Group - IAQG / European Civil Aviation Quality Group - EAQG.

Under the auspices of the Turkish Presidency, with the support of a total of 18 institutions, including 5 Ministries and 13 Civil/Military institutions, the SAHA EXPO Exhibition is organized under the management of SAHA Istanbul, in a manner that maximally contributes to the promotion of the Turkish defence and aerospace industry and the enhancement of export potential. In SAHA EXPO 2022 Exhibition, 957 companies, including 390 foreign and 567 domestic firms from 109 countries, 289 official delegations, 103 commercial delegations, and a total of 78,643 visitors, including 40,000 sector professionals, participated. The fair hosted thousands of B2B, B2G, and G2G meetings and booth visits, 9 international panels, 3 keynote speaker sessions, 281 product launches by companies, and 114 signing ceremonies with an export rate of at least 60% and a total value of over 1 billion dollars.

SAHA EXPO 2024 International Defence & Aerospace Exhibition will bring together the technologies that shape the future of the world between 22-26 October 2024 under the auspices of the Presidency. At the exhibition, the latest innovative solutions for the Defence, Aerospace and Space Industries continue to increase their strength and capacity. SAHA EXPO, the largest industry gathering in the region and an effective platform for important collaborations is preparing to bring together more than 1200 domestic and foreign companies from more than 100 countries. Having hosted more than 78,000 professional visitors last year, SAHA EXPO aims to attract more than 150,000 professional visitors on a total area of 90,000 m2 including 8 exhibition halls, foyer and outdoor areas of Istanbul Expo Centre between 22-26 October 2024 this year.

SAHA MBA Executive Development Programme, in which sector leaders and senior bureaucrats take part as trainers, was prepared in 2019 with TÜBİTAK TÜSSİDE with content, tools and methods equivalent to the world's most prestigious MBA programmes. SAHA MBA, Türkiye's most prestigious executive programme, continues to train leaders who shape the sector in its new term. 72 manager candidates from 51 different sectors came together with company owners and experienced managers and stepped into the journey of corporate and individual transformation.

With the SAHA Startup Program launched in 2021, high-tech entrepreneurial firms with advanced technology projects receive education, mentorship, and access to investors. Within the framework of the provided support, including legal and technical consultancy, business development, promotion, and infrastructure, entrepreneurs are prepared for investor meetings alongside the strength of the SAHA Istanbul ecosystem.

Contributing to the development of technologies specific to the needs of our country's defence and aerospace industry, as well as the needs of the allied countries. SAHA Istanbul consolidates national production capabilities, conducts B2B meeting events with many domestic and foreign major contractor companies, and continues to work to support the National Technology Initiative, aiming for the rightful position of our country in the defence and aerospace industry.

 

Our Subjects

• To increase the cooperation between its members and to create an infrastructure for the execution of joint projects, to inform the companies about the projects produced
• Establishing project-based collaborations for talent and infrastructure needs for the production of critical systems/materials that are not yet produced domestically, with domestic facilities and national technologies.
• Bringing together member companies or competent non-member industrial organizations, establishing consortium companies to meet the needs of local and national resources.
• Establishing Technical Committees and determining measures and remedies that will solve the technical, technological and operational problems of institutions and organizations in the defence industry,
• To reduce foreign dependency by producing national solutions in various fields such as parts and product production, software, quality certificates that companies need,
• To provide all kinds of support to its members during the project preparation and participation stages so that they can participate in national or international projects,
• Coordinating the participation of its members in defence, Aviation and Space Projects by cooperating with all government and civil institutions and organizations related to defence and Aviation,
• To ensure that its members benefit effectively from public support and incentives to strengthen their innovation and R&D efforts.
• Developing platforms for sharing practices and experiences of member companies
• Introducing the manufacturer, which is a member, with domestic and foreign companies in line with their demands, and providing guarantees and references for its members when necessary,
• To identify the legislative gap in the field of defence, Aerospace and Space and to contribute to filling the gap,
• Organizing the transfer of technical knowledge of universities to industry for commercialization,
• To fulfil the duties related to the association given to the association by the official authorities,
• To establish and manage the "SAHA ACADEMY" to strengthen the human resources of the sector,
• To establish cooperation with relevant domestic and foreign education institutions to establish and develop the sector's human resources inventory,
• For continuing education; To organize work programs, training and supportive studies, to support the training of qualified personnel to meet the needs of the sector,
• To carry out activities to increase the training, knowledge and experience of the members in various subjects such as institutionalization, financial management, quality management, cost management, process management, marketing activities to increase their competitiveness,
• To organize webinars and online training organized by our members and stakeholder institutions,
• Determining the measures to ensure that the production complies with the standards and making them available to its members, ensuring that they are complied with,
• To cooperate with relevant institutions and organizations in the preparation of production standards,
• Establishing Joint Testing and Certification Centers,
• To increase the international quality and certification ownership of its members in the field of the defence industry,
• To contribute to the development of national standards in technological products in the defence, aerospace and aerospace sectors,
• By creating a cyber security platform; To provide design and solution support to companies developing cyber security products,
• To increase the content and quality of the products of security technology manufacturers and to provide long-term human resources that the sector needs,
• Establishing a SAHA Enterprise Center; Matching defence industry companies with technology entrepreneurs in line with their needs, ensuring that the solutions to be developed can enter the national-international markets quickly
• To initiate and develop cooperation with institutions and organizations operating in the defence, Aviation and Space Sector in our country and the world,
• To carry out joint projects at the international level, to work together on technology transfer and joint investment,
• With the SAHA EXIM Project, to enable its members to export their products or services by ensuring that they bypass the thresholds required for export in the defence Industry in an error-free and low-cost manner,
• To provide consultancy services to its members for export financing and to create infrastructure for marketing activities,
• To work towards meeting the common needs of the members of the association under more favourable conditions, to develop cooperation,
• To create common purchasing platforms to reduce production costs and to carry out the necessary activities for these,
• With the EYDEP Program; To evaluate the competencies required for companies to take part in the defence industry, to prevent companies from being a weak link in the supply chain, if necessary, to provide support for companies to eliminate their weaknesses.
• To provide State Support for the UR-GE Projects to create demand for the products of their companies from abroad and the development of their companies' International Competitiveness and Reaching the Required Qualification Level,
• By establishing SAHA EXPO; To create a platform where the main platform manufacturers, suppliers and companies that want to take place as suppliers in these sectors come together.
• To represent its members in relevant domestic and international organizations, to participate in and organize national/international fairs and to encourage their members to participate in them,
• To carry out promotional and competitive work in national and international markets, including defence and Aviation Technologies, Products, Services and Devices/Materials of the members throughout Turkey,
• To carry out promotional activities to ensure that the promotion and marketing activities of the members are innovative, effective, resource-generating and sustainable,
• To create and implement the "Success Index" Model, in which the criteria for tracking the success of member prime contractors, SMEs and sub-industrialists will be determined.

 


Our Corporate Values
• Being Domestic and National: It adopts the approach of producing solutions with local and national stakeholders, from the determination of the cooperation needs to the realization stage, for the necessary products and services in the defense, aerospace and space sectors.
• Being Sustainable: Within the framework of its activities, SAHA Istanbul takes into account public health and safety and the effects on the environment, from the determination of the necessary needs to the stage of their realization, and adopts to support the development of environmental and social standards.
• Working Together: SAHA Istanbul team and its members believe that every job will be done more efficiently than today, and they unite to realize their goals and share the future.
• Being Scientific: It adopts scientific evidence-based, research, analysis and intervention approaches in cooperation projects for necessary products and services in the defense, aerospace and aerospace sectors.
• Innovative Thinking: SAHA Istanbul adopts the approach of being open to continuous development and change, producing innovative solutions for different needs and thinking about the unthinkable in all its works.

Our Corporate Governance Policy
To produce solutions with domestic and national stakeholders, from the determination of the cooperation needs to the realization phase, for the necessary products and services in the defense, aerospace and space sectors;
• We plan our future goals with the strategic management approach, and we achieve these goals with the active support of our stakeholders.
• Leads our employees and members to develop their competencies with learning and developing organizational approach; We recognize, appreciate and reward their achievements.
• With an effective stakeholder management approach, we establish and develop mutually beneficial relationships with our suppliers and collaborations.
• With the member experience management approach, we evaluate the expectations of our members with the principles of fairness, impartiality and confidentiality, and develop solutions to increase their positive experiences.
• With a continuous improvement approach, we manage our processes with the principle of effectiveness and efficiency and support them with technological developments.
• With the business continuity approach, we evaluate the risks and opportunities for our processes and ensure sustainable quality management.
• With an information security approach, we secure corporate and personal information assets by evaluating them in terms of confidentiality, integrity and accessibility.
• With the Occupational Health and Safety approach, we manage our risks to detect and minimize the factors that may cause work accidents and occupational diseases.
• With an environmental management approach, we take into account the environmental impact of our activities and aim for environmental sustainability.
• With the sustainability approach, we manage our assets and resources with the principle of efficiency and productivity throughout their life cycles.
• We aim to work with global principles with a social responsibility approach and set an example for our stakeholders in this direction.
In this context, we undertake to achieve together in the light of our principles, values ​​and ethical rules and to provide the necessary resources for this, taking all national and international standards as a reference.


Our Quality Policy
To Turkish or Foreign Defense, Aviation and Space Industry Industrialists operating or intending to operate in the defense, aerospace and space sectors; To guide the professional, social, technical and economic aspects, to develop the country's aviation, to achieve the goal of producing competitively superior products in the high-tech civil and military Defense, Aviation and Space Sector in the world markets in terms of quality, standard and cost, and to increase the domestic contribution share in the defense industry. To contribute to the creation of export opportunities in foreign and foreign markets, to take all kinds of initiatives to bring investments and production technologies to our country in the joint production programs in the defense, aviation and space sectors in the domestic market, to support the current sector representatives to develop new products and methods, Defense, To support the institutions providing technical education on aviation and space issues and to ensure the solidarity among their members;
• We plan our future goals with the strategic management approach, and we achieve these goals with the active support of our stakeholders.
• Leads our employees and members to develop their competencies with learning and developing organizational approach; We recognize, appreciate and reward their achievements.
• We provide some necessary training under SAHA Academy to support the human resources development efforts of our member companies.
• We create investment acceleration units and infrastructures for the R&D investments of our member companies to turn into final products and enter the market.
• We ensure that Defense Aviation and Space products developed by SAHA Istanbul member companies meet with domestic and foreign buyers, and we organize virtual and physical fair organizations in order to develop cooperation between our member companies.
• By combining the capabilities of our member companies, we ensure the development of spindle products on the basis of subsystems and systems.
• We evaluate the infrastructures of companies and academic units for the development of critical technologies or products that cannot be produced in Turkey.
• We create appropriate platforms to develop university and industry cooperation.
• With an effective stakeholder management approach, we establish and develop mutually beneficial relationships with our consultancy and supplier collaborations.
• With the member experience management approach, we evaluate the expectations of our members with the principles of fairness, impartiality and confidentiality, and develop solutions to increase their positive experiences.
• With a continuous improvement approach, we manage our processes with the principle of effectiveness and efficiency and support the institutionalization of ourselves and our member companies.
• With an information security approach, we secure corporate and personal information assets by evaluating them in terms of confidentiality, integrity and accessibility.
In this context, as stated in Article 43 of our Association's charter, our association has determined its quality policy to continuously improve and develop its effectiveness by complying with the requirements of the ISO 9001 Quality Management System, while fulfilling its duties, authorities and responsibilities within the scope of Turkish Civil Code No. 4721, Associations Law No. 5253 and Associations Regulation.



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              SAHA Istanbul Board of Directors