Nella piccola Estonia, i droni guidano la forte espansione della difesa [Estonian defense firms are projected to see $842 million in sales revenue in 2025, representing a 347 percent growth since 2021]

They are doing it wrong. They need to start preliminary consortium discussions with Germans or French. The first few years should be spent on drafting the work plan and work shares. There should be extensive meetings between the stake-holders and strong disagreements regarding who does what. The next 4 years should be allocated to engineering work, followed by 3 years of testing, with mass manufacturing aimed for 2035.

I always laugh when I see these PR-style articles talking about some “boom” in Estonia. Estonian economy has been in recession-stagnation for 4 years in a row with still no recovery in sight. GDP per capita in real terms and real wages are still below 2021 levels, making Estonia the absolute worst performer in the EU and placing Estonia firmly among the very poorest countries in the EU. These dynamics also place Estonia among the worst economic performers of the 2020s in the entire world.

Defence spending has skyrocketed indeed, but very little of that money has ended up in the country’s economy, as is visible from the miserable GDP numbers. Most of the billions spent go to imported weapons. I understand some companies may have seen significant growth, but considering the extreme spending spree, it is most certainly not a “boom” by any measure.