Croatia’s Orqa Expands Distributed Drone Manufacturing Network Across Allied Markets
Croatian drone manufacturer Orqa is expanding its international manufacturing network as part of a broader effort to increase annual drone production capacity beyond one million units. The company plans to distribute production across allied markets.
Croatian drone and FPV systems manufacturer Orqa is moving forward with plans to distribute drone manufacturing across allied markets as part of its Global Manufacturing Partnership Program aimed at scaling production capacity to more than one million drones annually.
The Osijek-based company said it has already secured manufacturing arrangements in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific, with additional agreements under negotiation. The initiative is designed to create a distributed production model capable of delivering standardized unmanned systems through regional manufacturing partners.
According to the company, the strategy is intended to improve supply chain resilience, shorten delivery timelines, and reduce exposure to logistics and regulatory bottlenecks. Orqa stated that all manufacturing partners will use standardized components and production processes to maintain compatibility and common performance standards across different production sites.
The company currently operates a production facility in Osijek with annual output capacity estimated at approximately 280,000 drones. The site was expanded in late 2025 as demand for non-Chinese unmanned systems increased among NATO and allied defense customers.
Orqa has positioned its manufacturing model around vertically integrated production and in-house component development. The company stated that its systems are designed and produced without Chinese-origin components, reflecting broader efforts among Western defense industries to establish sovereign and secure drone supply chains.
The expansion comes amid growing European and NATO demand for tactical unmanned aerial systems and FPV drones driven by operational lessons from Ukraine and wider concerns regarding dependence on Asian electronics suppliers. The company has recently expanded industrial cooperation with partners in the United States and Ukraine, including plans for joint drone-related production projects.
Orqa stated that the distributed manufacturing approach is intended to support long-term industrial redundancy and localized production capabilities across allied countries while maintaining common technical standards for defense customers.
