- Latvia's Cabinet of Ministers approved the first contract under a multi-year BLAZE supply framework with Origin Robotics on April 21, 2026, financed through the EU's Security Action Fund.
- The framework allows other European nations to join directly, enabling allied procurement without launching independent procurement processes, with annual technical specification renegotiation built in.
Latvia has signed a multi-year framework agreement with Origin Robotics to secure a continuous supply of BLAZE autonomous interceptor drones, and structured the deal so other European nations can plug directly into it without running their own procurement from scratch.
The Latvian Cabinet of Ministers approved the first contract under the framework on April 21, 2026, with financing provided through the European Union’s Security Action Fund. Contract value and delivery quantities were not disclosed.
The BLAZE system is a man-portable, rapidly deployable drone interceptor built to kill hostile unmanned aircraft, including loitering munitions and fast-moving surveillance drones, before they reach their targets. Developed and manufactured entirely in Riga by Origin Robotics, a defense technology company co-founded by Agris Kipurs and Ilya Nevdah, BLAZE carries a high-explosive fragmentation warhead and is NATO-codified with a STANAG-compliant warhead module, making it the first autonomous interceptor drone of its type certified for immediate deployment within the alliance, according to the company’s February 2026 announcement. Latvia was the first European nation to order and receive the system, followed by Estonia and Belgium, with all three beginning deliveries in January 2026 per EDR Magazine’s reporting on the initial delivery milestone.
The framework agreement is structured differently from a conventional defense contract, and that structural difference is the news as much as the purchase itself. Traditional procurement locks technical specifications at the moment of signing. For a weapons system built around AI-based target acquisition and computer vision, that approach means the military customer could be receiving hardware built to a specification that was current when the contract was signed but is already outdated by the time deliveries are complete. Origin and Latvia addressed that problem directly by building annual specification renegotiation into the agreement, ensuring that every batch of BLAZE systems delivered reflects the current state of the platform rather than its state at contract award.
Kipurs described the logic in the company’s announcement: “What makes this agreement truly significant is its structure. It gives Latvia the security of procuring BLAZE capability for multiple years ahead, with no new lead times and no procurement gaps. Both sides can renegotiate the technical specification each year. That means Latvia will always be receiving the latest version of BLAZE.”
The second structural feature of the agreement is its open architecture for allied participation. Under a government-to-government cooperation model built into the framework, other European nations can accede to the existing agreement rather than launching independent procurement competitions, skipping months or years of contracting work and accessing the same SAFE-financed procurement vehicle Latvia has already established. Contracts signed under the framework qualify for EU SAFE financing, which removes an additional barrier for EU member states that want to strengthen their counter-UAS capabilities but face budget constraints on direct defense spending. The practical effect is a plug-and-play procurement pathway: an allied country identifies BLAZE as a capability it needs, contacts Latvia, and joins an existing agreement rather than building one from zero.
The urgency driving this procurement structure is straightforward. NATO countries across Europe have reported a growing number of unauthorized drone flights near borders, military sites, and critical infrastructure, accelerating efforts such as the “drone wall,” a coordinated initiative to strengthen surveillance and counter-UAS capabilities along NATO’s eastern flank, according to EDR Magazine’s reporting. The drone threat is not theoretical along that flank: Russian surveillance and attack drones have repeatedly crossed into or near Baltic airspace during Ukraine-related operations, and the countries most exposed geographically have been among the fastest to act on counter-UAS procurement. Latvia’s decision to structure its BLAZE agreement as a coalition vehicle reflects an understanding that the threat is not unique to its own territory and that the solution will be more effective if applied collectively.
Origin Robotics itself was founded in direct response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to the company’s own background statements, and its flagship strike system BEAK is already deployed by both the Latvian and Ukrainian Armed Forces. BLAZE represents the company’s shift into the interception domain, building on the same underlying AI and computer vision architecture to engage incoming threats rather than dispatching them outbound.
Major Modris Kairišs, Head of the Latvian Autonomous Systems Competence Centre, said at the time of initial deliveries that “hands-on use at scale allows us to build a precise, real-world understanding of their capabilities, limitations, and tactical applications,” framing the deployment as both a capability acquisition and a learning exercise that will inform how the system integrates into Latvia’s broader defense architecture over the life of the multi-year agreement.