Orqa expands drone manufacturing in Croatia as Europe accelerates strategic decoupling from China

Orqa has completed a major expansion of its drone production facility in Osijek, Croatia, enabling annual output of up to 280,000 NDAA-compliant drones — a significant jump in Europe’s domestic manufacturing capability for both FPV and defence-grade unmanned aerial systems.

Unlike most global drone makers, Orqa relies solely on EU-designed and EU-produced components, eliminating exposure to Chinese-controlled supply chains. This is not a marketing detail — it is a structural pivot at a time when NATO states and European manufacturers are urgently searching for vendors that meet security, sovereignty and trust-based manufacturing criteria.

The upgraded facility is built around Orqa’s fully vertically integrated model:

• internal design of all major components
• in-house engineering
• on-site assembly
• internal cybersecurity validation
• controlled and traceable supply origin

This level of vertical control allows Orqa to guarantee functional reliability, anti-tampering integrity, and uninterrupted delivery — a decisive advantage as the global UAS market experiences demand spikes and geopolitical scrutiny.

Orqa’s leadership frames the expansion not only as a business milestone, but as an industrial-capability proof point for the entire European defence sector. As CEO Srdjan Kovacevic put it, the company has demonstrated that Europe can scale high-performance drone production outside of China, supporting resilient supply chains for allied customers.

Orqa claims a strong 2024 performance, with over 100,000 products delivered and customers across more than 50 countries, positioning the firm as one of Europe’s most advanced drone technology companies — and increasingly as a strategic manufacturing node for Western defense and security clients.