Your gateway to the Baltic defense market.
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.
Three frontline states, one accelerating market.
Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia don't just sit on NATO's eastern flank. Each is independently building the budget, force posture, and industrial base to defend it, and together that adds up to sustained, compounding demand.
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.
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 most markets simply don't 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 real manufacturers, not just pilot projects: Atlas Dynamics, a Riga-based industrial drone maker that has delivered over 200 systems to Ukraine; Origin Robotics, building low-cost unmanned systems designed to replace manned aircraft on parts of the battlefield; Edge Autonomy (formerly UAV Factory), which doubled its production capacity with a new Riga factory in 2025; and Fixar, whose hybrid fixed-wing drones are already operating in more than 25 countries.
For any manufacturer weighing where to test, demonstrate, or produce unmanned systems, Latvia isn't an emerging option. It's already where much of this industry operates today.
- Atlas Dynamics
- Origin Robotics
- Edge Autonomy
- Fixar
- SPH Engineering
A region investing faster than it's being asked to.
Beyond drones, the Baltics are building layered, integrated defense capability, not just spending toward a NATO target.
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 brings together 125 member companies, one part of the 200-company Baltic defense industry ecosystem spanning all three countries.
Allied capital, local execution
Rheinmetall's €275 million ammunition joint venture in Latvia and €180 million plant in Lithuania, Germany's newly activated permanent brigade in Lithuania, and Canada's and the UK's brigade-level commitments to Latvia and Estonia show allied nations are backing the wider Baltic defense industry with industrial capacity, not just 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 company from first inquiry to fully operational, regardless of sector. We handle the parts that usually slow a project down, so our clients don't have to navigate them alone.
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 in practice, not just on paper.
The questions manufacturers actually ask.
How do you actually set up a defense manufacturing facility in Europe?
In most EU states it means clearing three tracks at once: national defense-production licensing, site permitting (often including explosives or munitions certification), and separately negotiating any investment incentives. In Latvia specifically, the Green Channel compresses the middle track to roughly half the standard timeline.
Why work with a market-entry partner instead of navigating Latvia's regulations directly?
Every incentive on this page is real, but each is administered by a specific institution with its own paperwork and discretion, and the gap between a program existing and a program approving your project is where timelines actually slip. Rovarex has been through that licensing process before, knows the governing normative acts in detail, and maintains personal, standing contacts on the decision-making boards that approve these projects.
What happens after I reach out?
Jānis Veide, Rovarex's owner, responds personally, with no intake form and no handoff to a team. That first conversation maps where your project stands today and the fastest compliant path to being operational in Latvia.
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
Developed by a Rovarex business partner, this facility provides specialized, fully licensed space for explosives-related production and storage. It was engineered from the ground up to meet strict regulatory and safety requirements, rather than retrofitted to satisfy them.
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.
- Fully permitted and licensed for explosives-related production and storage
- Adjacent legacy runway suitable for UAV / drone launch and recovery
- Direct flight corridor to Militārais poligons "Sēlija"
- Positioned to support end-to-end capability demonstration, launch to return
Led with precision and accountability.
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.