Your gateway to the Baltic defense market.
We help defense and arms manufacturers get licensed, find a site and connect with local partners in Latvia and the wider Baltics.
Baltic defense market entry usually stalls on the same three questions: who grants the license, where you can actually build, and who picks up the phone when a permit stalls.
Rovarex handles all three.
Securing licensed operations in Latvia and the wider Baltics, identifying specialized production facilities and strategic sites near NATO training infrastructure, managing company formation and legal documentation, and introducing manufacturers to the local partners who move things forward.
Who grants the license
We secure licensed operations in Latvia and the wider Baltics, and manage company formation and the legal documentation behind it.
Where you can actually build
We identify specialized production facilities and strategic sites near NATO training infrastructure.
Who picks up the phone
We introduce manufacturers to the local partners who move things forward when a permit stalls.
Three frontline states, one accelerating market.
Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia sit on NATO's eastern flank and are each building the budget, force posture, and industrial base to defend it. Together that adds up to steady demand for local production, testing and training.
Latvia: Europe's drone powerhouse.
Latvia and the United Kingdom co-lead the international Drone Coalition, an 18-member-state initiative backing Ukraine's unmanned systems effort. The Coalition channeled €1.8 billion in contributions in 2024, with member states pledging €2.75 billion for 2025. In the first half of 2025 alone, two Latvian companies won a combined €17 million order for roughly 12,000 drones, selected from more than 260 competing European manufacturers.
For a manufacturer deciding where to test, demonstrate, or produce unmanned systems, Latvia is already where much of this industry operates.
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The state is backing that leadership with capital: at least €100 million committed to the domestic drone industry in 2026, alongside a dedicated 98,800-acre test range offering guaranteed free test slots and a purpose-built drone corridor for industry validation, infrastructure few markets offer. Riga also hosts the annual Drone Summit, which drew nearly 2,000 participants from 39 countries in 2026, bringing NATO officials, militaries, and industry leaders to the same table.
That ecosystem has produced working manufacturers: Atlas Dynamics, a Riga-based drone maker that had delivered over 200 small reconnaissance drones to Ukraine as of October 2022; Origin Robotics, building low-cost unmanned systems designed to replace manned aircraft on parts of the battlefield; Edge Autonomy, which opened a 10,000 square meter production facility in Riga in 2025, almost doubling its previous floor space; and Fixar, whose hybrid fixed-wing drones are already operating in more than 25 countries.
A region investing faster than it's being asked to.
Beyond drones, the Baltics are building layered, integrated defense capability. Each row highlights a region on the map.
The eastern "drone wall"
Latvia is significantly increasing funding along its eastern border, with €200.54 million planned for air defense and €50 million for unmanned aerial system capabilities next year alone, up from €20 million the year before.
Dual-use innovation base
Beyond drones, the Baltics are fast-growing in autonomous systems, robotics, cybersecurity, AI, sensors, and photonics. Latvia's Federation of Security and Defence Industries had 98 members in March 2022, and Latvia is one part of the 200-company Baltic defense industry ecosystem spanning all three countries.
Allied capital, local execution
Rheinmetall is building ammunition capacity in two of the three states: an ammunition joint venture in Latvia expected to draw more than €200 million, and a plant in Lithuania that it puts at up to €300 million. Together with Germany's newly activated permanent brigade in Lithuania and Canada's and the UK's brigade-level commitments to Latvia and Estonia, they show allied nations backing the wider Baltic defense industry with industrial capacity as well as troop rotations.
A test environment that matches the mission
Large-scale ranges like Sēlija, dedicated drone corridors, and streamlined permitting mean capability can be tested and demonstrated close to where it will actually be used, cutting the distance between R&D and deployment.
Everything a company needs to enter and operate.
Rovarex works alongside Latvia's national investment framework to take a defense manufacturer from first inquiry to fully operational. We take on the permits, site checks and introductions that usually slow a project down.
Your partner on the ground
Rovarex acts as a single point of contact for defense and arms manufacturers entering Latvia, handling site search, partner introductions, and market-entry guidance from initial evaluation through to launch. We know the normative acts governing this field in detail, have been through the licensing process ourselves, and maintain personal, standing contacts on the decision-making boards that approve these projects.
Green Channel fast-track
We help qualifying priority-sector projects access Latvia's Green Channel, where administrative procedures such as territorial planning, residence permits, and workforce attraction are processed in roughly half the standard time. Military production projects qualify with Ministry of Defence approval alongside a minimum €5 million investment.
0% tax on reinvested profit
We guide clients through Latvia's tax framework, including 0% corporate income tax on reinvested profit, part of a system ranked 2nd globally for competitiveness for the eighth consecutive year.
Special Economic Zones & free ports
Rovarex can position a facility within one of Latvia's five Special Economic Zones or free ports, including Riga Free Port, Ventspils Free Port, and Liepāja SEZ, where qualifying operations receive up to an 80% rebate on real estate and corporate income tax.
EU structural funding
We help clients identify and apply for EU structural funding. Roughly €10.5 billion is earmarked for Latvia through 2027, spanning economic transformation, digitalization, and industrial capacity.
Equal treatment for foreign investors
Latvia extends national treatment to foreign investors, so nearly all incentives and requirements apply exactly as they would to a local company. Rovarex makes sure clients see those terms applied in practice.
Map positions are indicative.
The questions manufacturers actually ask.
How do you actually set up a defense manufacturing facility in Europe?
Why work with a market-entry partner instead of navigating Latvia's regulations directly?
What happens after I reach out?
Next to one of the largest NATO training grounds in the Baltics.
Militārais poligons "Sēlija" is a 25,596-hectare training area being developed by Latvia's Ministry of Defence across the Aizkraukle and Jēkabpils municipalities, one of the largest in the Baltic states, built to support national and allied brigade-level training.
Sēlija is a state project rather than a Rovarex asset, but its scale changes the map for the region. It already hosts tactical, engineering, and UAV training, with allied units training alongside Latvian forces. For companies that need to demonstrate or test capability close to where NATO trains, proximity to Sēlija is a real advantage, and it's exactly where Rovarex operates.
Jēkabpils Airfield Facility
Launch from Jēkabpils · fly to Sēlija · execute · return
Developed by a Rovarex business partner, this facility provides specialized, fully licensed space for explosives-related production and storage. It was engineered from the start to meet strict regulatory and safety requirements.
The site sits directly beside a legacy military airfield runway, still suitable for drone launch and recovery operations. Its position gives partner companies a full operational loop within a single corridor: launch from Jēkabpils, fly to the Sēlija training area, execute the mission, and return, without crossing into unrelated infrastructure.
For manufacturers that need to test and demonstrate systems close to where NATO trains, this is one of the most direct paths into the Baltic defense market available today.
- 01Fully permitted and licensed for explosives-related production and storage
- 02Adjacent legacy runway suitable for UAV / drone launch and recovery
- 03Direct flight corridor to Militārais poligons "Sēlija"
- 04Positioned to support end-to-end capability demonstration, launch to return
Leadership
Jānis Veide
Formerly Adviser to the Latvian Minister of the Interior, he has coordinated complex multi-stakeholder security projects.
"Defence capability starts long before the frontline."
Ready to enter the Baltic market?
Tell us where you are today, and we'll map the fastest compliant path to being operational in Latvia.
jv@rovarex.consulting +371 27881873