The key to defense industries is not the large companies... but the SMEs (small and medium enterprises)...
During my time working in the defense industries, I dealt with small companies, and I believe that this was the most important experience that helped me understand the secrets of this industry and the aspect that many do not see. It was indeed a small workshop, or a space not exceeding sixty square meters inside a technology business incubator at one of the universities. For example, the technology zone affiliated with the university where I studied includes nearly four hundred startups working in the fields of research and development.
They have intern students to reduce costs, and the team consists entirely of young people, usually no more than five or ten individuals. Each team takes on a specific task in a certain component within a large system produced in a major company. And that is their point of distinction: they specialize in a very narrow sector that serves the Turkish company they work with, while at the same time exporting the same component to other companies outside Turkey.
The idea of looking at a country like Turkey and seeing major companies like BAYKAR or ASELSAN and then saying, "I will establish a large company like it in Egypt," is a wrong idea that indicates a lack of understanding of the nature of the industry or absence of a complete vision of what makes these countries successful. These major companies are not entities existing in a vacuum, but rather represent the tip of an iceberg, beneath which lie thousands of small and medium companies that manufacture sensors, microcircuits, software, composite materials, and testing systems.
The bulk of the technology and export worldwide comes from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) whose names do not appear on the lists of large companies in any country, nor are they mentioned in the news, but they are actually the backbone of the industry.
Therefore, if you focus on building a giant company from the top without establishing a base of small companies underneath it, you will create a fragile entity that looks large on paper but relies on the outside for everything essential and sensitive. The correct path starts from the base, not from the summit.
As I wrote earlier about the UAE's defense industries: It is true that the numbers are very strong, but we cannot say that it has a real defense industry, and that’s precisely why I said that the UAE's numbers are fragile.
Well-known large companies are the last link in the chain, as the defense industries are not a starting phase, but rather simply the top of the technological pyramid, and you cannot build it if your economic, educational, and industrial base is weak.
Those who dream of missiles, drones, and advanced radar systems without building the foundation on which they rest are like someone wanting to build a skyscraper on sand; it will collapse at the first gust of wind, if they managed to build it at all.
The idea is simply that advanced defense industries, especially those with high export value, are not just assembly plants or operational licenses, because in the end, you are exporting technology, and building technology is a cumulative process that requires continuous learning, specialized training, high competencies, and real investment in small and medium companies that produce innovation and the precise components entering any defense system.
If no country in the world can build strong defense industries without this base, how can we do it?
Singapore, for example, has more than sixty local defense companies, aside from ST Engineering, focusing on precise areas like anti-drone systems through small and medium companies like Flare Dynamics. The government there imposes technology transfer on foreign companies to build local competencies. It also has a complete industrial system capable of exporting dual-use products globally.
As for India, its defense exports reached 2.76 billion dollars, and it includes more than sixteen thousand small companies manufacturing electronics. The Make in India programs connect these small companies with large companies. They still face challenges related to quality and product life cycle management, but the most important lesson that can be drawn is that investing in small companies has doubled exports, not building a single large company and relying solely on it to enter the defense industries.
Turkey, which before 2004 relied on the military and limited production, today has more than 3500 companies in the defense sector. Most of these companies belong to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) category, and work within global supply chains. This has made its defense exports in 2025 exceed 7.45 billion dollars in just the first eleven months. Additionally, five Turkish companies are among the top one hundred defense companies in the world; however, export analysis shows that the bulk of it comes from companies that are neither large nor well-known.
The Defense Industries Agency (SSB) supports small and medium companies through easy loans; last year alone, the agency assisted 25 companies with 25 million dollars, in addition to training programs and integration with large companies like BAYKAR and ASELSAN. As a result, small and medium companies are now producing electronics, radars, and components for drones that are exported to 180 countries.
It is no coincidence that Haluk Gorgun, President of the Turkish Defense Industries Agency, stated that one of their main goals is to integrate small and medium companies into high value-added global supply chains, because these companies are simply the solid foundation of any real defense industry.
As for South Korea, it aims to become the fourth largest arms exporter by 2030. What have they done? They raised the defense R&D budget and launched the Defense Startup Open Innovation Challenge, which gives 60 million won to each startup, along with training and partnerships with major companies such as KAI and LIG Nex1. In this way, Korean small and medium companies have started participating in major exhibitions like LIMA 2025 in Malaysia, showcasing optical fibers for missiles at prices 70% lower with faster delivery.
The Israeli model is based on startups and small and flexible small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In 2025, the number of startups in the defense sector reached 312 companies, with an increase of 95% in one year, having received billions of dollars in investments for their project ideas.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense allocated 10% of the R&D budget to support startups, not large companies. Programs like iDEX allow these small companies to enter the market quickly. For this reason, companies like UVISION sell suicide drones to NATO for hundreds of millions, while small and medium companies collaborate with the German company Rheinmetall. All of this is based on an education and training system capable of turning ideas into exportable products within months, not years.
All of these countries confirm one economic fact: There is no country weak in education and training that does not have small and medium companies that have managed to build a developed defense industry with export capabilities.
Turkey has invested in 2400 companies and 100,000 trained employees.
Israel has turned war into a platform for creativity through 300 startups.
Korea and Singapore built integrated industrial systems based on training and incentives.
The common factor among all of them is the focus on small and medium companies.
And now take this final touch: If you say that you will focus on small and medium companies, I will tell you that you cannot do that without a strong educational system that encourages innovation and produces graduates who understand scientific theories and industrial applications together.
It is education that creates small and medium companies themselves.
What does that mean?
It means that when you have a strong educational system that connects engineering, design, scientific research, and practical application, you will find that graduating youth do not just go looking for a job and that’s it, but they establish highly specialized small companies; one company works in manufacturing sensors, another develops control software, and a third focuses on composite materials or artificial intelligence.
These small companies are the real laboratories for innovation; every experience, every mistake, and every small project gradually turns into cumulative experience, from which you develop an integrated industrial ecosystem capable of global competition.
Because without real education, there are no skills, and without skills, there are no small companies, and without small companies, it is impossible to build a developed defense industry in the first place.
The whole chain is interconnected:
Education provides you with skills,
Skills create small and medium enterprises (SMEs),
These companies produce technology,
And technology opens the door to export,
And in the end, giant companies emerge that manufacture products with high export value.
I think this is a sufficient answer to the question:
What does education do in a lost homeland?
This is an AI-generated English translation. The original text is in العربية
PhD Researcher in Defense Contracting and Cooperation Policies