As part of its international expansion plans, the company is promoting its unmanned solutions at this year’s AUSA conference in Washington as it seeks to strengthen its presence in the United States.

The company is pushing the project as numerous anti-drone system producers in Ukraine and other European countries are striving to make their interceptors cheaper than the targets they are meant to strike, and also suitable for mass production using readily available components.

Ranno Pajuri, business development manager at KrattWorks, told Defense News the new dummy drone is expected to be presented by the end of 2027.

“We need to obtain a working prototype that is reliable enough. The good thing is that we have software which can be adapted to different hardware quite easily,” he said. “But if the drone becomes so much different from what we have today and so much faster, then there are many variables to consider before it is stabilized and ready for a demonstration.”

The Ukrainian Army, to which the Estonian company has supplied one-way attack drones as well as other products such as its Ghost Dragon ISR drone, is one of the potential users of the new solution. KrattWorks has delivered its UAVs to customers in Europe, and the company is currently making efforts to boost its foothold in the United States as well as various markets in Asia and Africa. KrattWorks says its Ghost Dragon ISR systems have also been deployed in Estonia, Georgia and Moldova, among others.

“We produce our drones in Estonia. We have enough extra capacity to ramp up the production if the demand will grow. Aerial target drones are usually made within quite a short lead time,” Pajuri said. “But we are open to some level of transfer of production if this is necessary and the demand is large enough in the country to which we are selling our products.”

KrattWorks says its product portfolio includes the DART fixed-wing aerial target, which is intended for use against air-defense missiles, heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft cannons, and the DART-R, an aerial target decoy fitted with a radar reflector that can reach a maximum speed of 200 km/h (124 mph), according to data from the company. KrattWorks also makes the PARM aerial target quadcopter.

The manufacturer said it “builds ISR drones with wide frequency band-hopping radios and GNSS-free flight modes to help first responders and servicemen to gain fast situational awareness in situations where every second counts.”

The business cooperates closely with the Ukrainian Armed Forces and studies the UAV attacks that take place in Ukraine and the evolving tactics used there to improve its products. KrattWorks makes efforts to ensure that its aerial target drones mimic the latest operational trends and act in a realistic manner, the company representative said.

In its September 2026 report on Russia’s use of UAVs against Ukraine, the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based think tank, said the Russian military used an estimated 5,166 Shahed-type drones, including decoys, against Ukrainian targets in August alone.

Meanwhile, the Office of the President of Ukraine said on Sept. 28 that the country’s military had reached an overall drone shoot-down rate of 70%, including both piston-powered and jet-powered Shaheds.

“But for jet-powered ‘Shaheds,’ unfortunately, the rate is much lower than it needs to be – 57%,” the office said in a statement. “New interceptors are being actively tested. Some combat teams are already using them, but of course, some details still need to be refined to ensure sufficient effectiveness and deployment at scale. We are pushing the developers to move faster.”

As European nations are bracing for intensified Russian hybrid attacks, defense companies are pitching products for different capability gaps, with European and American producers partnering rather than working in isolation, industry representatives said during the event over the weekend.

Fire Point has developed its flagship missile, which has attracted praise from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to be part of the pan-European Freyja anti-ballistic missile defense program, with the system’s prototype expected to be ready in the first half of 2027. Meanwhile, the company is working on an extended-range version that is to be released this year, Terekh said during a panel discussion on the first day of the forum, Oct. 2.

“Yesterday we launched our ballistic missile onto Russian territory for the first time. It is a tactical ballistic missile for [a range of] 300 kilometers maximum. We are working on a longer [range] version that will also come this year,” Terekh said. “We were able to make this missile in two years as a private company.”

Fire Point’s executive said the capability is crucial for Ukraine, as the country is joining “a VIP league of operators of their own independent ballistic missiles with no kill switch. We don’t have to ask now anybody if we want to conduct self-defense.”

The Ukrainian authorities have entrusted a private company with developing a key component of the missile defense program because Fire Point has slashed bureaucracy and accelerated research and development on its missile range, she said.

“Also, we were able to make it a few times cheaper than any” competitor, Terekh said.

The forum was officially inaugurated by Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Moldovan President Maia Sandu. Encouraged by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Finland joined NATO in April 2023. In Moldova, concern over intensifying Russian hybrid threats and the war in neighboring Ukraine is pushing the country’s government to seek closer cooperation with NATO, while maintaining its constitutionally mandated neutrality.

“This year, Russian drones have entered our airspace more than 45 times, eight of them in the past week. Last month, Russia deliberately hit Ukraine’s border crossings with Moldova, killing two people,” Sandu said during an Oct. 2 joint press conference with Stubb. “Our answer is to grow stronger. We are investing in air defense, modernizing our Army and raising defense spending.”

During the panel discussion featuring both heads of state, the Finnish president said that Russia has embarked on a campaign of hybrid warfare directed against Europe whose aim is to destabilize allied nations and “make sure we don’t support Ukraine.”

“The warfare that Russia is conducting in Ukraine is kinetic, traditional warfare. But what it is conducting in Europe is hybrid, and hybrid has many different elements. You have daily cyber attacks, you have sabotage attempts as we saw in Leipzig,” Stubb said.

Meanwhile, on Oct. 1, two Finnish companies, satellite operator Iceye and telecoms equipment giant Nokia, unveiled their new partnership to develop sovereign satellite communications for governments and defense customers, offering broadband low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications systems. The first satellites are to be launched in 2028.

Iceye is already supplying radar-satellite systems to numerous European allies, including Finland, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Sweden, and Germany’s December 2025 order for a 40-satellite constellation marked the first-ever European move to create a large tactical system on the continent, according to its CEO Rafal Modrzewski.

Modrzewski and Nokia’s CEO Justin Hotard discussed their companies’ joint project during a panel discussion at the forum, saying it comes in response to nations’ drive for sovereignty in satellite communications across priority mission areas.

“Sovereignty doesn’t exist without competitiveness. Sovereignty without competitiveness is isolation … and the reality, as we see here in Finland and in Europe is that neither the U.S., nor Europe can win in a war of isolation,” Hotard said.

Also on Oct. 1, Finland formally presented the first two of the 64 F-35 fighter jets the nation has ordered from Lockheed Martin. At a Helsinki Security Forum panel, Elizabeth Parcella, the vice president for Strategy and Business Development for Aeronautics at Lockheed Martin, said that, while the move improves Finland’s defense posture, it also comes as the company is expanding its manufacturing collaboration with local industry partners.

“Patria is a key partner with us. They are starting to manufacture the forward fuselage of the aircraft. They are also partnered with our engine provider, Pratt & Whitney,” Parcella said. “And, together with other European manufacturers, about 25 percent of the value of every F-35 will be produced in Europe moving forward.”

In his remarks during a panel, Panu Routila, the CEO of Patria, referred to last week’s award of a contract to supply the first Trackx light armored personnel carriers to Finland and Sweden as an example of how European nations work together to fill their capability gaps.

One example “is Trackx, our tracked vehicle, which we started developing just three years ago, actually, because of the demand for Arctic mobility, mobility in very difficult conditions. And this is a vehicle that is now ready,” Routila said.

Deliveries of the vehicles are to commence in 2027, Patria said in a statement.

“Following delivery, both countries will conduct national field trials and evaluations to assess the vehicles’ suitability for operational use. In addition, part of the testing is expected to be conducted jointly between the nations,” the statement said.

The development comes as Saildrone is working with partners in the Netherlands, Norway and Poland to ramp up its USV production for European customers, including militaries.

Kim Løye Sørensen, the European head of business development at Saildrone Denmark, the company’s subsidiary that manages its operations in Europe, told Defense News the firm is observing a rising demand for surface drones across the continent, and is in talks with a number of navies.

“We’ve had a collaboration with the Danish Navy where we had four of our Voyager platforms … in operation for the Danish Navy for a six-month period,” Sørensen said. “Now the Danish Navy and the Danish government are in the process of creating a new contract to have more Saildrones within the Danish Armed Forces. But in the near future we also see our drones operating in different European countries in the northern part of Europe.”

Due to Denmark’s location between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, the Royal Danish Navy plays a strategic role in monitoring and safeguarding maritime traffic through the Danish Straits, a gateway between the two seas.

The 33-foot Voyager is designed for coastal surveillance and nearshore mapping missions, performing continuous maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), seafloor characterization, as well as real-time domain awareness, according to data from Saildrone. Powered by an electric motor and enabled with a mapping speed of 5 knots, the USV can operate for 100 days between service stops.

Voyager USVs can perform “maritime domain awareness and the ISR for a long period of time. More than three months out in station and being out there without doing anything, just being a forwarding sensor providing the data,” Sørensen said.

In addition to the Voyager, Explorer and Surveyor platforms, Saildrone is also developing a new product, Spectre, a 170-foot USV that will join the portfolio as its largest and fastest platform that will carry weapons.

“With our Spectre platform, there will be kinetic effectors,” Sørensen said. “It’s a container-based solution. You could either have two 40-foot containers or five 20-foot containers of various payloads, including kinetics on that platform. That will be built in 2027.”

“The decision was made following an assessment of the costs of the offers, delivery times, operational capabilities and the involvement of the local defense industry in the procurement,” the Latvian Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

In June 2025, Latvia and Sweden signed a letter of intent that was to pave the way for an acquisition of 18 Archer systems. However, Riga’s decision to continue its negotiations with Excalibur Army resulted in an offer that includes more favorable prices and delivery terms, according to the ministry.

“Another significant advantage is that the involvement of the local defense industry is envisaged as part of the contract,” the statement said.

Bolstering Latvian indirect fire support capabilities has been identified as one of the “key capability development projects” to be financed by the nation’s record-high 2026 defense budget. This year, Latvia foresees spending 4.91% of its gross domestic product (GDP), or €2.16 billion ($2.48 billion), on the military.

The value of the howitzer procurement was not disclosed.

Excalibur Army is a subsidiary of Czechoslovak Group (CSG), the Prague-based private defense holding that is one of Europe’s largest ammunition producers.

The Morana has a firing range of 41.5 km (26 miles). Operated by a crew of three, the howitzer can reach a top road speed of 90 km/h (56 mph), according to data from Excalibur Army.

“The crew has 45 carried rounds available for their task completion. Fully automated gun loading allows the crew to fire up to 6 rounds within the first minute from establishing position,” CSG said in a statement.

Speaking at a Sept. 11 panel discussion held during the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv, Sikorski said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in the Kremlin lowering its defenses in the Kaliningrad exclave, which borders Poland and Lithuania.

While NATO should not engage in any offensive actions against Kaliningrad, an intensification of the alliance’s drills around the area could force Russia to remove some of its forces from Ukraine, the official said.

“We should not be thinking about our confrontation with Russia only as being confined to Ukraine,” Sikorski said. “I was in Latvia just three days ago on a Polish base, we have a tank company there, and … there are no troops on the other side. We closely monitor, as you may imagine, the Kaliningrad exclave. There are hardly any troops there.”

“I’m suggesting we should exercise so aggressively on our side as to make … [Russian President Vladimir Putin] uncertain of what we will do, and so that he needs to draw forces away from Ukraine,” the deputy prime minister said.

A 2023 report by the U.S. Center for Naval Analyses indicates that, prior to the war in Ukraine, Kaliningrad’s military capabilities had been boosted with the deployment of various forces, including the 11th Army Corps whose composite ground forces alone had a nominal count of up to 18,000 troops.

Last September, as Russia and Belarus were preparing the “Zapad 2025” joint military drill, the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence estimated that only “several thousand” troops were to be stationed in Kaliningrad for the exercise.

Sikorski’s statement comes as Poland is readying to host the first military drills for the so-called Coalition of the Willing with British and French forces. At the same time, under the country’s East Shield initiative worth around 10 billion zloty ($2.7 billion), the Polish military is advancing projects to ramp up defensive infrastructure, including fortifications and natural terrain obstacles along the roughly 800 km (497 miles) of the nation’s border with Kaliningrad and Belarus.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the project will pave the way for the launch of a Starlink-like system for the nation.

“The culmination of the process that began today can and will be a Polish Starlink,” Tusk said Sept. 9 at the MSPO defense show in Kielce, referring to SpaceX’s satellite network. “Anyone closely following the Russian-Ukrainian war knows how important communications are. It is absolutely critical. Without communications, you have nothing to look for on the modern battlefield.”

In a statement, PGZ said that the program is to be implemented from 2026 to 2030.

ICEYE has an ongoing cooperation with PGZ on an Earth observation system for the Polish Armed Forces. The Finnish company has delivered synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites to the country’s military under its MikroSAR program. The system is designed as the first component of the military space capabilities toolkit Warsaw plans to develop in the coming years. The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has fueled Poland’s efforts to ramp up its reconnaissance ability.

“The cooperation is to draw on the experience gained through the MikroSAR program and is to include the development of a space segment based on a distributed architecture, the development of domestic ground infrastructure, and the establishment of industrial capabilities enabling the system to be independently developed and maintained in Poland,” PGZ said.

The Finnish manufacturer said in a statement that its collaboration with the Polish group is to be based on the partners’ complementary roles.

“ICEYE will act as the technology partner, while PGZ will contribute its industrial and organizational capabilities,” the space company said. “ICEYE will be responsible for developing the satellite system architecture, designing and manufacturing the space platforms, and conducting satellite operations. PGZ’s role will be to organize the program’s domestic industrial base by identifying the group’s companies that will contribute their production capabilities, expertise and technical infrastructure.”

Echodyne opened a manufacturing facility in Washington state last July, and is considering establishing a manufacturing presence in Europe to benefit from the booming counter-drone market there.

Eben Frankenberg, the company’s CEO, told Defense News at the MSPO defense show here that Echodyne has longstanding cooperation with Kongsberg. The integration of its radars into the company’s Protector RS4 and Protector RS6 remote weapon stations will further increase Echodyne’s visibility in European markets, he said.

Echodyne’s solutions will make “those remote weapon stations, which weren’t originally designed to counter drone threats, effective at countering drone threats,” Frankenberg said. “And this is something we do with a lot of companies.”

With a surging demand for miniaturized radars that ensure detection and fire-control support for various counter-drone systems in Europe, Echodyne is also considering investing in establishing a manufacturing presence in Europe.

“There’s obviously a big European demand and there’s rightfully some interest from European countries in having more local content,” the CEO said. “We’re thinking about where it would make the most sense.”

In July 2026, Echodyne said it opened an 86,350-square-foot facility under a $40 million investment. The U.S. plant will eventually be able to produce more than 30,000 radar systems per year, according to data from Echodyne.

“Part of the plan with the new facility was that it gives us a template or blueprint to be able to open other new facilities in the future. Because now we know exactly all the machines we need to have, all the workstations, the number of people to equip them,” Frankenberg said. “So it does set us up for that in the future.”

Brian Moran, the company’s vice president for Europe, told Defense News at the MSPO defense show here that, while advancing the Barracuda project in partnership with PGZ, the company is also offering two autonomous aircraft to accompany the country’s envisioned fleets of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jets and Boeing’s AH-64E Apache attack helicopters.

“One of the flagship programs for Anduril has been collaborative combat aircraft, CCA, where our Fury has been chosen by the United States Air Force as a program of record,” Moran said. “With Poland getting its F-35s, Fury is tailor-made to partner with an F-35 as a loyal wingman and as a force multiplier to keep men and women in uniform out of harm’s way.”

In addition to 32 F-35 jets, the first of which arrived in Poland last May, Warsaw is also awaiting the delivery of 96 Apache helicopters. With the latter program in mind, Anduril is in talks with Polish officials over a potential sale of the Thunder drone, following its unveiling at July’s Farnborough Airshow.

“In July, we launched Thunder which is an autonomous collaborative platform for the Apache attack helicopter,” Moran said. “And just like Fury operating with an F-35, with Poland getting all these Apaches, having Thunder is a force multiplier, especially as Poland will have to train a lot of pilots for 96 Apaches.”

Deliveries of the 96 helicopters with related gear and weapons are scheduled to begin in 2028. Once the copters are supplied to the country, Poland’s military is expected to be the second-largest user of the Apaches in the world after the United States.

Last year, the Polish defense ministry signed a $300 million contract to lease eight AH-64D Apaches from the United States in anticipation of the planned deliveries.

A number of anti-drone system producers from Ukraine are showcasing their solutions to military and industry representatives from Poland and other countries at this year’s MSPO defense industry show in Kielce, Poland, which runs from Sept. 8 to 11.

Ukraine’s UAV producer General Cherry is among the companies that are working on solutions to counter the threat that Russian jet-powered drones pose to the Ukrainian military. The company is developing a new kinetic booster version of its Bullet interceptor that is to have a maximum speed of some 450 km/h (280 mph).

“We have to make changes to the frame and the materials the drone is made of, using more heat-resistant materials,” Andrii Oliinyk, the senior international affairs manager at General Cherry, told Defense News at the event. “We plan to release it this fall after the testing phase is completed.”

Grim Tech, another vendor based in Ukraine, is developing a new interceptor designed to counter jet-powered drones, aiming to enable its new interceptor with a maximum speed of between 500 and 700 km/h.

“Russia uses almost only jet-powered Shaheds to attack Kyiv because the interceptors that we were using in the past against older generations of drones had an interception rate of around 90 percent,” a Grim Tech manager told Defense News at the show. “By the end of this October, we want to present our jet-powered interceptor.”

Ukrainian defense company BlueBird Tech supplies FPV drones, drone detectors, electronic warfare systems and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to the country’s military. Ahead of the MSPO show, company representatives told Defense News that research-and development speed is one of the biggest differentiators between BlueBird Tech and its Western counterparts.

“We’ve had to build a very effective R&D system. Our R&D cycles are usually measured in weeks, whereas elsewhere you might expect them to take years,” said Vadym Stepanchuk, the head of business development at BlueBird Tech. “We have already announced the development of our air-defense interceptor. It is still at an early stage.”

Stepanchuk said BlueBird Tech wants its interceptor to cost less than the targets it destroys.

“That is one of our fundamental design requirements, and it means we need to get the engineering right from a cost-efficiency perspective,” he said. “That’s the direction we’re pursuing: developing a jet-powered interceptor that can be affordable and mass-producible.”

The latest developments come as Ukraine’s manufacturers are readying for the potential lifting of an arms exports embargo that had prevented them from freely selling their products abroad. Earlier this year, the country’s government decided to establish a regulated framework that allows local defense companies to export surplus military gear to partner nations, provided they cover the Ukrainian military’s needs first. A rising number of Ukraine’s defense companies are also teaming up with U.S. and European partners to have their products manufactured abroad.

At the MSPO show here, numerous new partnerships between Ukrainian and foreign companies were forged, including a cooperation agreement signed by Estonia’s counter-drone and surveillance specialist DefSecIntel Solutions and Ukrainian-Estonian DoD Solution, a company focused on onboard computers and autonomy systems for unmanned platforms.

The technology demonstrator for a new heavy tracked infantry fighting vehicle, developed by Poland’s industry and presented during the event, reflects this ambition.

“Poland is becoming a country that not only buys military gear from the world, but is also its major producer,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said at the show’s opening ceremony on Sept. 8.

The deputy prime minister said the Polish defense industry can benefit from the European Union’s Security Action For Europe (SAFE) scheme. Under the instrument, Poland has been allocated up to €43.7 billion ($50.8 billion) worth of low-interest loans for military acquisitions.

“We have reached a level of fifty-fifty [between domestic military gear purchases and imports]. This would not happen without the SAFE mechanism,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

The Polish sector is dominated by state-owned defense group PGZ but also features a group of emerging private companies.

Kosiniak-Kamysz named PGZ’s new heavy tracked infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), whose technology demonstrator was officially presented during this year’s MSPO event, as one of the examples of the Polish industry’s potential flagship export products.

“This is a modern platform, with a weight of between 40 and 43 tons, which maximizes troop protection,” a PGZ representative told Defense News. “We plan to present the vehicle’s prototype next year, and it could enter serial production in 2029.”

The heavy IFV is to be added to PGZ’s offer alongside the group’s light tracked IFV, the Borsuk (Badger), that is already in production. To date, the Polish Ministry of National Defence has ordered 257 Borsuks from the group, with deliveries of up to 1,400 units of the platform in different variants envisioned ina 2023 framework agreement.

Military officials expect around 700 heavy IFVs could be procured for the Polish Army.

While Poland’s pro-European Union government is advancing efforts to ramp up domestic weapons, equipment and ammunition production, while also intensify cooperation with European partners, the country remains a major buyer of gear from the United States.

Over the past years, Poland has placed orders for Abrams tanks, F-35 fighter jets, AH-64E Apache helicopters, Patriot missiles and M142 HIMARS rocket launchers, among other equipment.