Latvia to spend tens of millions on creating "drone army"

The Latvian National Armed Forces (NBS) will develop its drone technology capability by investing 20 million euros, Minister of Defence Andris Sprūds announced to journalists on May 27.

"Seeing the importance of drones in warfare and guided by Ukraine's experience, we can announce the launch of the Drone Capability Initiative this year. We can metaphorically talk about building a drone army," Sprūds said, according to LSM.

This means that Latvia will not only supply Ukraine with drones as part of the "Drone Coalition" international initiative that it leads alongside the United Kingdom, but it will even more actively implement these technologies in its own National Armed Forces.

Within the framework of the drone coalition, this year up to 20 million euros will be invested in support of Ukraine, and a similar amount will also be invested in developing domestic drone capacity to provide the NBS with drones.

These 20 million euros include both the creation of infrastructure and the purchase of drones, including from Latvian companies, worth at least 10 million euros.

It is planned that at the beginning of June, a drone testing site will start operating at the new 'Selija' military base and ranges.

In the coming days, there will also be a 24-hour innovation hackathon, for which around 20 teams have applied to take part and where it is hoped the ideas could be further developed in specific technologies. Also, a tender for grant projects worth 600,000 euros has been announced which closes June 21, the minister said.

In addition, drone pilot training will be provided at various levels – in the National Defense Service, Youth Guard, Colonel Oskars Kalpaks Vocational High School, as well as within the framework of national defence training.