Iraq Turns to Turkey for Air Defenses After Drone War Exposes Its Skies

Iraq is moving to buy 20 air-defense systems from Turkey, a senior Iraqi military official said, in a sign that Baghdad is trying to close one of the most visible gaps exposed by the recent US-Israeli war with Iran: its inability to reliably defend its airspace from drones and missiles.

While Baghdad has not disclosed which Turkish systems are included in the planned purchase, Iraq has been looking closely at Turkey’s expanding layered air-defense portfolio.

At the upper end is SİPER, Turkey’s long-range air-defense system, whose first operational version offers a range of more than 100 km, while later variants are expected to reach roughly 150 km and 180 km.

For medium and short-range protection, the HİSAR family offers interception ranges of more than 25 km for HİSAR-O and more than 15 km for HİSAR-A, according to Roketsan’s published specifications.

Iraq’s interest also appears to include short-range counter-drone systems such as KORKUT, a 35 mm self-propelled gun system with an effective range of about 4 km, and SUNGUR, a portable short-range missile system with a maximum range of 8 km.

These systems would point to Baghdad’s attempt to build a layered shield against drones, cruise missiles and low-altitude aerial threats rather than relying on a single high-end missile-defense platform.

Lt. Gen. Saad Harbiye, Iraq’s deputy army chief of staff for operations, said at the SAHA defense exhibition in Istanbul that Iraq had signed a contract with Turkey and was finalizing the financial details of the purchase. He did not disclose the value of the deal or identify the specific Turkish systems involved, but said the suppliers were state-owned Turkish companies.

“New air defences against drones have become really important for Iraq,” Harbiye said, adding that Iraq’s skies had been “filled with drones” during the recent conflict.

The Turkish Defense Ministry separately confirmed that Defense Minister Yaşar Güler received Harbiye during the SAHA 2026 defense fair in Istanbul on May 5, though Ankara has not publicly detailed the reported air-defense contract.

The deal comes after weeks of drone and missile strikes across Iraqi territory during the wider confrontation involving Iran, Israel and the United States. Iraq was hit by both sides: US and Israeli strikes targeted sites linked to Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups, while Iran launched drones and missiles that crossed into Iraq and hit oilfields, a Baghdad hotel housing diplomatic missions, and Iranian opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region.

For Baghdad, the issue is not only military. Iraq’s state remains heavily dependent on oil, making energy infrastructure a strategic vulnerability. The World Bank says oil accounted in 2025 for an estimated 53 percent of Iraq’s real GDP, 88 percent of government revenues and 91 percent of merchandise exports. It also noted that conflict-related disruption around the Strait of Hormuz had already reduced export capacity and slowed production.

That dependence helps explain why Iraqi officials are focused on protecting oilfields as much as military bases. A successful strike on southern energy infrastructure or export routes would not merely be a security incident; it could rapidly become a fiscal crisis for a government already exposed to oil-price volatility, public-sector spending pressures and regional conflict.

Harbiye framed the Turkish purchase as a cost-effective answer to a new battlefield problem: cheap drones forcing states to spend expensive interceptors. He said some systems use missiles “worth $1 million to shoot down a drone costing $10,000,” while Turkish systems would allow Iraq to defend against drones at lower cost.

The reported deal also reflects Turkey’s growing ambition to become a regional defense supplier. Ankara has spent years building a domestic arms industry around drones, missiles, armored vehicles, naval platforms, electronic warfare and air-defense components. At SAHA 2026, Turkish officials presented the country’s defense sector as a response to the lessons of recent wars, including Ukraine and the Iran conflict. The fair brought together more than 1,700 companies from more than 120 countries, according to Hürriyet Daily News.

Turkey’s defense exports have also risen sharply. Anadolu Agency reported that Turkish defense and aviation exports reached $10.05 billion in 2025, up 48 percent year-on-year, while new defense contracts rose from $10 billion in 2024 to $17.8 billion in 2025.

The air-defense sector is central to this push. Aselsan, one of Turkey’s leading defense companies, reportedly plans to increase deliveries of components for Turkey’s integrated “Steel Dome” air-defense system by 50 percent in 2026. These include early-warning radars, electronic combat and defense systems, payloads and counter-drone capabilities.

But the Iraqi deal also carries a strategic irony. Turkey itself is still building a fully integrated national air-defense shield and has relied on nearby NATO air defenses during the Iran war. That means Iraq is not necessarily buying a single Turkish equivalent of Israel’s Iron Dome, but likely elements from Turkey’s expanding short-range, medium-range and counter-drone defense ecosystem.

The agreement is also part of a broader warming in Iraq-Turkey relations. Ankara and Baghdad have moved in recent years from tension over the PKK, water and oil exports toward deeper security and economic coordination. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry says the two countries signed 27 legal texts during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s April 2024 visit to Iraq, covering transportation, energy, industry, agriculture, investment, trade, water and security. In August 2024, the two defense ministers also signed a memorandum of understanding on military, security and counterterrorism cooperation.

For Turkey, the sale would deepen its influence in Iraq at a moment when Ankara is trying to link security cooperation with the Development Road Project, a planned transport corridor connecting Iraq’s Al-Faw port in Basra to Turkey through rail and highway routes. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry describes the project as a 1,200-kilometer corridor designed to move goods from the Gulf and Asia to Europe.