Latvia’s Emerging Role as a Security Creator: Opportunities for the Defense Industry
In October of this year, the largest security forum in the Nordic countries “Riga Conference 2025” was held at the University of Latvia (LU). It was organized by the Latvian Transatlantic Association (LATO) in cooperation wiht the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense. The conference brought together more than 800 policymakers, industry leaders and academics to discuss the shaping of the new European security policy and economy.
One of the main questions is how European countries can use their innovation potential and industrial niches to strengthen the common defense capability while promoting economic development. The conference also confirmed that the Baltic States are actively transforming from security consumers to security creators, integrating industry, research and politics in a single strategic framework.
Opportunities of the Latvian defense industry
This is a special time of opportunity for the development of Latvia’s defense industry – a new defense policy is being created both at the national level and at the level of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
NATO is rearming, but the EU has turned to industrial policy with the aim of building reliable supply chains,
including like-minded countries. For the Latvian defense industry, this means an opportunity to specialize in those niches where Latvian companies are already successful and the state can be the first customer and co-investor.
Currently,several financing funds have been established at the EU and NATO level for increasing the capacities of the defense industry,the total amount of which is more than 3 billion euros. Also at the national level this year, 2.4 million euros are earmarked for military and dual-use technologies in the ministry of Defense’s annual grant competition. Four Latvian universities are involved in the “Unilab Defense” program to promote the development of the defense technology ecosystem in latvia and NATO. Such projects enable research initiatives to be turned into companies suitable for attracting investment.
Several Latvian military industry projects have already received high international recognition,
including the LMT-managed 5G defense testing ground in Adaži,which provides the necessary environment for new experiments. The company “Edge Autonomy” has opened a new UAV factory in Riga this year with 270 specialists, while the company “Exonicus” has developed a physiologically based XR trauma simulator for military and civilian emergency medicine. “NEWT21” specializes in the development of unmanned drone systems for air, water and underwater missions. Such companies as “Lightspace Technologies”,”SAF Tehnika” and others have also found their niche,offering products significant for the development of NBS.
In addition to high-tech niches,ammunition is also produced in Latvia – Latvia’s leading manufacturer of small-caliber ammunition “Ammunity” has attracted financing for capacity expansion. In the future, it is planned to build an artillery ammunition
2025/12/23 14:28:09