Wolfram Europa Announces a €200 Million Investment in Jēkabpils to Manufacture Explosives

Estonian-registered defence tech startup Wolfram Europa will invest €200 million in a vertically integrated energetics complex near Jēkabpils in Latvia, specialising in explosives, warheads and counter-mobility solutions and creating 200 high-skill jobs. Construction is planned to begin in 2026, with serial production expected in 2027. The complex will synthesise 300 tonnes of RDX or 100 tonnes of HMX, mix end-use compositions including Composition B, C-4 and PBX, and fill and assemble 100,000 anti-tank mines and 200,000 warheads a year. It is designed to hold up to 1,200 tonnes net explosive quantity — a buffer sized to keep supply running through disruption and crisis.

Key Developments This Week

  • Europe’s explosives gap: CEO Magnus-Valdemar Saar argues Europe spent 35 years scaling down its explosives industry and is now rearming with investment focused on platforms and final assembly — scaling weapons faster than the explosives and warheads that make them effective. Jēkabpils will be the company’s first major site, he says, but not its last
  • Latvia moves upstream: Economics Minister Viktors Valainis called it a significant step for Latvia’s defence industry and its ability to attract strategic industrial projects to its regions, while Defence Ministry State Secretary Airis Rikveilis pointed to Latvia’s ambition to become a regional hub. Wolfram Europa was previously Wehold, its ownership partially overlapping with Frankenburg Technologies
  • CIA director’s Moscow trip, via Riga: John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow on August 25, reportedly primarily to warn Russia against escalatory action against the Baltic states, and his aircraft landed in Riga en route — seen by some as a message in itself. Estonian PM Kristen Michal said Estonia was aware of the visit and that the security level of the Baltic states has not changed
  • September is expo month in the region: The Latvian Dual-Use Export Forum opens in Rezekne on 6–7 September with around 50 international and up to 120 Latvian companies; MSPO follows in Kielce on 8–11 September with a record 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and Canada as Lead Nation; and Estonian Defence Week runs in Tallinn on 21–25 September for some 4,000 professionals
  • NASAMS deployed outside Vilnius: Lithuania has replaced the short-range RBS-70 systems guarding the approaches to the capital with medium-range NASAMS. Chief of Defence Raimundas Vaikšnoras acknowledged the cost of intercepting cheap drones with expensive missiles but called it the most flexible option available. A third battery is expected in 2028, and Latvia is donating SENTINEL radars
  • Latvia weighs a border state of emergency: A draft order would declare a state of emergency along the eastern border until 1 December, citing the threat of escalation in Russian military operations and the increasing frequency of drones and unidentified objects in Latvian airspace. It covers nine municipalities plus Daugavpils and Rēzekne, with the Ministry of Defence coordinating
  • KAPO wants a background-check law: The Estonian Internal Security Service is calling for dedicated legislation making background checks compulsory for critical positions, singling out the defence industry. Checks are currently spread across the Aviation Act, the Defence Forces Organization Act and others with differing requirements; KAPO wants uniform rules rather than a wider circle of people checked
  • GGG doubles ammunition capacity: Giraitė Armament Plant, the only ammunition producer in the Baltic states, has begun construction on a €36 million second line that will double output to 500 rounds per minute and grow the workforce from 120 to 200 by 2028. CEO Mindaugas Kurauskas says Lithuania does not need that much ammunition, so Africa and Asia are the target markets
  • Innovation at three-month tempo: Major Ivo Peets, Commander of the EDF Force Transformation Command, describes cutting the path from an identified operational problem to an integrated solution to about three months. He separates technological maturity from operational readiness — what works in Ukraine today may not suit reservists who must store and maintain it for years
  • Summa Defence order book full: The Finnish group, in which Estonian shipyard Baltic Workboats holds 8.23 percent as second-largest shareholder, grew first-half revenue 38 percent to €59.3 million while posting a €17.9 million loss. Its order book stood at €105 million in June, €61 million of it defence, including a €35 million vehicle deal with a European NATO country
  • Latvia meets Ukraine’s new defence minister: Raivis Melnis met Evgeniy Khmara and Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi. Ukraine’s priority needs are unmanned ground vehicles, fibre-optic-controlled drones, middle-strike capabilities and air defence assets, and Kyiv is counting on Latvian leadership in mobilising further international assistance
  • Warning on Estonia’s drone gap: Defence League member Priit Raju writes that at a joint Baltic drone exercise in Latvia, Latvia fielded some 200 trained operators integrated with infantry and Lithuania sent a trained FPV team, while Estonia’s attack drones did not work. Three years ago all three were on equal footing; he argues Estonia’s drone domain now fits the definition of a hollow force

Defence Industry Dimension

Wolfram Europa’s €200 million commitment to Jēkabpils targets the part of the supply chain nobody else is building. Europe can order platforms and assemble munitions, but without indigenous RDX and HMX synthesis it is assembling around an imported bottleneck — and Latvia has just placed itself at the upstream end of the continent’s industrial rebuild, as an exporter of technology rather than an importer. GGG’s second line points the same way from the other end of the calibre range, with an explicit export strategy into Africa and Asia. Against that, the week’s security news is a reminder of what the capacity is for: a CIA director routed through Riga to deliver a warning in Moscow, NASAMS moved up to cover Vilnius, Latvia contemplating emergency powers along its eastern border, and a blunt insider’s account of Estonia falling behind its neighbours on the one capability this war has proved decisive.