Riga Technical University

In November 2024 Riga Technical University set up an interdisciplinary research group for unmanned technologies in the air, on land, on water and under water. Led by Ivo Vaicis of the Faculty of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, it brings together institutes for aeronautics and aerospace engineering, transport, mechanical engineering, high-performance materials, applied computer systems, photonics, electronics and telecommunications, and chemistry and materials. Its stated aims include work with national industry on military and industrial drones and support for national security organisations.

The Institute of Aeronautics, Aerospace Engineering and Transport runs a drone laboratory funded by a bequest from the aeronautical engineer Juris Kalnavarns; a laboratory-scale wind tunnel is planned. RTU was involved in organising the Drone Summit 2025 in Riga with Latvia’s Ministry of Defence.

In 2025 RTU agreed with Tallinn University of Technology and Kaunas University of Technology to cooperate on defence and security research, including joint bids for NATO and European Defence Fund projects. With three other Latvian universities it backs UniLab Defence, a pre-acceleration programme for military and dual-use start-ups.