Turkey’s military spending fell for a third year straight in 2022, to $10.6 billion, displaying a decrease of 26 per cent compared with 2021, said the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a leading global security think tank, on Monday.
SIPRI’s 2022 figures indicate that Turkey’s military expenditure increased by 28 percent in nominal terms, however inflation-adjusted calculations show the biggest annual real-terms decrease in Turkey’s defence spending ever recorded by SIPRI.
The United States, China and Russia are the countries with the highest military spending respectively.
Military expenditures globally rose by 3.7 per cent in real terms in 2022, reaching a record high of $2240 billion. Global spending grew by 19 per cent over the decade 2013–22 and has risen every year since 2015, according SIPRI’s data.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a major driver of the growth in spending in 2022. Military expenditure in Europe rose by 13 per cent during the year, which was the largest annual increase in total European spending in the post cold war era,” the think tank said.
Turkey’s military spending increased by 63 percent between 2012 and 2020, ranking 15th worldwide in terms of the largest military expenditure.
The country’s defence spending registered a 5 percent drop for the first time in 2020, after Washington removed Turkey from the F-35 joint strike program over Ankara’s decision to buy Russian S-400 air defence system.
Since 2019, the US Congress also declines to approve the $20 billion sale of new Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernisation kits that Turkey requests.
Washington this month announced decision to go ahead with a planned $259 million software sale to Turkey needed to upgrade the country’s current fleet of F-16 fighter jets.
