Goran Basarac emphasized that Croatia has a major opportunity to achieve a breakthrough on the global market through the convergence of the IT sector and the defence industry.

The discussion was prompted by the upcoming defence conference in Zadar, during which Basarac highlighted several key points regarding the current state and future of Croatia’s defence sector:

• Growth and competitiveness: The sector recorded an increase in total turnover and export revenues in 2025. Croatia is highly competitive in specific, highly specialized niches, offering “battle-tested” products, while relying on imports for major systems such as aircraft.
• New trends and modern warfare: Europe is shifting from peacetime procurement to accelerated defence production. Key technologies today include autonomous systems, drones, artificial intelligence (AI), electronic warfare and cybersecurity.
• A major opportunity: Basarac noted that around EUR 800 billion is currently “on the table” for defence in Europe, while Croatian companies are already developing advanced solutions in machine learning, digital forensics and unmanned systems.
• Cooperation with the Armed Forces: He stressed that the defence industry should not develop solutions in isolation, but must work closely with the Armed Forces, which provide clear technical and tactical requirements based on experience from modern battlefields such as Ukraine.