The carrier will be constructed at shipyards in Istanbul, thereby relying upon Turkey’s already impressive defense industrial ecosystem—while augmenting it with such an ambitious project.

At the most recent NATO conference The Hague, the United States representatives were pleasantly surprised that NATO’s members committed to increase their defense budgets to five percent of their national gross domestic product (GDP).

This was still a relatively meager move, considering that the European members of NATO continue arguing that Russia’s resurgence as a great power represents an existential threat to their collective existence. Still, all but one member voted to increase their defense spending. That member was Spain—which, on the other side of the continent, has little to fear from Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.

Yet Spain desires to have an aircraft carrier. Madrid’s refusal to increase defense spending along with the rest of NATO’s European members, along with its overt desire to develop an aircraft carrier of its own, seem at cross purposes. After all, how could Spain, which spends little on its defense, even afford to build even one carrier—one of the most expensive platforms any nation could build for itself?

Turkey Is Europe’s Greatest Defense Manufacturer

On July 3, things became clearer. Turkey, a rising power with an impressive and growing defense industrial base in its own right, is going to help Spain construct the carrier. That’s according to the head of Turkey’s Defense Industry Agency (SSB). 

In the announcement of the joint carrier development project with Madrid, Turkey plans to assist Spain in building a 984-foot carrier. Army-Recognition.com, a trade publication, assessed that the Spanish-Turkish joint initiative “places Turkey’s future carrier in a league comparable not only with European vessels but with those operated by the United States and China, a sign that Ankara seeks a more assertive posture in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.”

The Spanish firm, Navantia, will be involved in this joint project to build a supercarrier. The carrier itself will be constructed at shipyards in Istanbul, thereby relying upon Turkey’s already impressive defense industrial ecosystem—while augmenting it with such an ambitious project. This is yet another sign of how seriously Ankara is taking defending its strategic interests. 

By jointly developing what will become Europe’s largest aircraft carrier with Spain, Ankara is not only enhancing its capabilities and enriching its already impressive defense industry. It is also further expanding its influence over NATO—in particular over NATO’s least active member, which is clearly not committed to NATO chief Mark Rutte’s aim of increasing the defense spending commitments for all NATO’s European members. 

This is how Madrid gets to have its strategic cake and eat it—by helping the rise of NATO’s most important strategic member of southern Europe, Turkey. 

What if Spain Had to Choose Between NATO and Turkey?

For years, Turkey has found itself in territorial disputes with Greece over natural gas rights in the Aegean Sea. There are further tensions with Russia in the Black Sea, while Turkey is at odds with Israel and Egypt over oil and mineral rights in the Mediterranean Sea. If Ankara is serious about winning these disputes, it must rapidly grow—and modernize—its indigenous military capabilities.

Ankara is accomplishing this herculean task. What’s more, by diverting Spanish support away from developing the capabilities of the wider NATO alliance and instead focusing on bettering Turkey’s defense capacity, Ankara is setting itself up to be a ‘poison pill’ member of the already stagnating alliance. 

In another decade, Turkey will become the hegemon of southern Europe. It will have the capabilities to cleave for itself a set of territories in this part of the world that will ensure its leaders’ vision of a Turkey that dominates the Middle East and southeastern Europe—not unlike the Ottoman Empire of old.