ADEX 2026: Türkiye Fields Its Largest-Ever Delegation to Baku’s Defence Show
Türkiye is sending its largest-ever delegation to the Azerbaijan International Defence Exhibition, with more than 50 Turkish companies confirmed to exhibit when ADEX 2026 opens in Baku on September 30. The Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) and Turkish industry are treating the three-day show as a showcase for a defence-industrial relationship that has deepened steadily since Turkish-made systems featured prominently in Azerbaijan’s 2020 campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The sixth edition of ADEX runs through October 2 at the Baku Expo Center and is, by the organisers’ own account, the biggest yet: it is the first time the venue has opened a fifth exhibition pavilion to accommodate demand. Organisers put total participation at more than 270 companies from 29 countries, with roughly 45 official military delegations attending from 33 nations, according to figures published by SSBülten, the Turkish defence industry bulletin. A parallel event, Securex Caspian, runs alongside ADEX and focuses on internal security, protection and rescue equipment.
Türkiye’s National Pavilion
Türkiye is fielding a dedicated national pavilion, and ROKETSAN is serving as General Sponsor of the exhibition — a formal role that puts the Ankara-based missile maker’s branding alongside the event itself, not just on a stand. The United States’ Northrop Grumman holds the parallel Country Partner Sponsor slot, underlining that Baku is positioning ADEX as a genuinely multi-bloc marketplace rather than a venue tilted toward any single supplier base.
Turkish industry sources and event previews name ROKETSAN, ASELSAN, Baykar, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ), HAVELSAN, STM and small-arms maker TİSAŞ among the confirmed exhibitors, spanning missiles, radars and electronic warfare, combat and reconnaissance drones, fighter and trainer aircraft programmes, simulation and naval systems, and firearms. Fourteen countries — including Azerbaijan, Türkiye, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, Israel, Pakistan, Italy, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus and Uzbekistan — have their own national pavilions this year, giving ADEX a genuinely crowded field of state-level defence-industrial diplomacy.
Why Azerbaijan Matters to Turkish Exporters
Azerbaijan is not a typical new-customer story for Turkish industry; it is one of the most mature relationships Ankara has. Baku was an early and visible operator of the Bayraktar TB2, which Azerbaijani forces used during the 2020 war over Nagorno-Karabakh, and the two governments have since expanded cooperation to joint production discussions, officer training exchanges and broader defence-industrial coordination under the “one nation, two states” framing both capitals use for the relationship. Turkish-made loitering munitions have also reportedly turned up in Azerbaijani service in recent months, a sign the relationship extends beyond the systems Baku has publicly ordered. That history gives Turkish firms a home-field advantage at ADEX that is harder to replicate in newer markets across Africa, Southeast Asia or Latin America, where Turkish exporters are still building track records.
For Ankara, the exhibition is also a chance to press the case with the roughly 40-plus other bilateral meetings the organisers say are scheduled between Azerbaijani officials and visiting delegations on joint projects and technology transfer — a format Turkish companies have used elsewhere to convert exhibition contacts into localisation and co-production agreements rather than one-off sales.
Context: A Crowded Autumn for Turkish Defence Exhibitions
ADEX comes at the tail end of a dense exhibition season for Turkish industry, which has already shown at SAHA Expo in Istanbul and MSPO in Poland this year, part of a broader export push that SSB has said pushed Turkish defence and aerospace exports to roughly $11 billion over the trailing twelve months, with about 83 percent of that output built on domestically developed content. Baku gives that push a market where the political relationship is already settled and the sales conversation can focus on which systems to localise next, rather than on winning the customer’s trust from scratch.
None of the companies involved has announced a signed contract tied specifically to ADEX 2026 as of publication; SSB and exhibiting firms are expected to confirm any deals reached at the show once the exhibition floor opens on September 30.
