Latvia Moves to Map Critical Supply Risks Across Its Defense Industry

Latvia’s Ministry of Defence has launched a market study aimed at identifying the availability of critical components and raw materials needed by the country’s defense industry, in the latest move to strengthen domestic military production and reduce supply-chain vulnerabilities.

The ministry opened the market research on September 15, seeking information on the capabilities of potential contractors and prevailing market prices before launching a formal procurement procedure.

The planned study will examine the availability of what the ministry describes as critically important defense-industry components and raw materials. Potential bidders have until October 6 to participate in the preliminary market research.

While the ministry has not publicly detailed which specific materials or components will be assessed, the initiative comes as Latvia attempts to build a more resilient domestic defense-industrial base capable of supporting the National Armed Forces during peacetime, crisis and conflict.

The effort fits into Latvia’s Defence Industry and Innovation Strategy for 2025–2036, which sets ambitious targets for increasing the role of domestic companies in military procurement.

Under the strategy, Latvia aims to double the share of domestically manufactured military resources in National Armed Forces procurement to 20% by 2028 and increase it further to 30% by 2036. Riga also wants local companies to account for up to 30% of large defense contracts through new security-of-supply policies.

Supply-chain resilience is explicitly identified as a priority under the strategy’s implementation plan, which calls for stronger national industrial capabilities and more resilient economic supply chains serving both defense companies and the armed forces.

The timing is significant.

Latvia is simultaneously compiling a closed-access catalogue of military products, technologies, components and subsystems that domestic companies will be capable of delivering from 2027 onwards. The catalogue is intended in part to assess Latvian industrial capacity and support future defense cooperation with Ukraine.

Riga has also begun moving selected military production closer to home.

Earlier this year, Latvia’s State Defence Corporation signed a memorandum with Germany’s Dynamit Nobel Defence to establish a domestic facility for anti-tank mines and key components. The facility is expected to begin operating in 2028 and is specifically intended to improve national security of supply.

The new raw-material and component study suggests Latvia is now looking beyond final assembly and finished defense products toward the underlying industrial dependencies that could constrain production during a crisis.

That issue has become increasingly important across Europe as defense companies expand output while competing for specialized metals, electronics, energetic materials and other components that often depend on a limited number of global suppliers.

For Latvia, the immediate objective is more narrowly defined: determine what expertise exists in the market, how much such a study is likely to cost and prepare the ground for a formal procurement.

But the broader direction is clear. Riga is attempting to gain a better understanding of where its defense industry remains dependent on external suppliers as it works toward a substantially larger domestic military-industrial base.