Estonian defence startup Frankenburg Technologies signs MoU with BAE Systems to scale low-cost counter-drone missiles.
For Europe, Estonia is now a hotbed of DefenceTech innovation, sharing projects with NATO’s biggest players. This week, Estonian-founded defence start-up Frankenburg Technologies has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with British defence giant BAE Systems, in a bid to scale up the UK’s sovereign missile production capacity and address the rapidly evolving threat posed by drone warfare.
The agreement focuses on supply chain collaboration and joint capture opportunities, with an immediate emphasis on developing warheads for Frankenburg’s low-cost, mass-producible missile systems designed for counter-drone operations. The two companies will also explore broader future technology development together.
Frankenburg Technologies, headquartered in Tallinn, operates across eight European countries and has a third of its engineering team based in the UK. The company’s flagship product, the Mark I — a compact, precision-guided interceptor built from commercially available components — went from concept to live fire in just 13 months and cuts short-range intercept costs by a factor of 10 to 20 compared with legacy solutions. Its tech will soon be tested in live combat action in Ukraine. The company has also signed some other high-profile MoUs with manufacturers from Korea and UK.
BAE Systems employs around 110,000 people worldwide and operates across more than 40 countries. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe and the sixth largest in the world.
A DefenceTech match
The pairing aims to combine the strengths of a startup and a global prime contractor. Dan Hallett, Managing Director UK at Frankenburg, said the MoU would help new technologies “move from concept to capability far faster” by matching Frankenburg’s agility with BAE Systems’ industrial scale and global reach.
Drone warfare has emerged as one of the defining tactical challenges of the 2020s, most visibly in the conflict in Ukraine, where cheap uncrewed aerial systems have reshaped the battlefield and exposed gaps in existing air defence inventories.
“This partnership marks a powerful step forward for the UK defence ecosystem. By bringing together Frankenburg’s agility and rapid innovation with BAE Systems’ scale, industrial depth and global reach, together we’re creating the conditions for new technologies to move from concept to capability far faster,” says Scott Jamieson, Managing Director of BAE Systems’ Maritime & Land Defence Solutions.
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