Component shortage leaves Estonia short of wartime drones

Estonia’s defence capability has a rarely discussed gap. While drones dominate the battlefield in Ukraine, the country lacks a real ability to produce them in large numbers during a war, because companies do not hold meaningful stocks of drone components.

Those stocks are missing because drone makers do not have the financial means to tie money up in parts. Ukraine’s wartime experience has shown that every drone matters on the battlefield, and that the ability to replace them quickly matters even more. Estonian companies can build FPV drones, and the report asks what would happen if supply chains were cut.

Beijing is tightening its export rules step by step, and the pressure to accumulate stocks is growing. The article asks whether the state and the defence industry can find a working solution before the window for obtaining drone components closes for good.

A photograph with the story shows a drone at a training and test field built beside the Lennuakadeemia building.