Kongsberg puts $51M into Polish counter-drone plant

Norway’s Kongsberg will build a factory in northern Poland to manufacture and maintain counter-drone systems for the Polish SAN program, investing more than 200 million zlotys (about €45 million, or $51 million) in a plant that will create over 100 permanent jobs once it reaches full capacity, the company announced on Oct. 13 at the Warsaw Security Forum.

The plant will be built in the Pomeranian region near the Tricity area of Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot, with the exact site still to be announced. Kongsberg plans to sign the construction contract by the end of this year and begin building immediately afterward, with serial production starting in the first half of 2028. The factory will become part of Kongsberg’s global manufacturing network, serving Poland first and later other European customers.

“The new facility will support Polish industry and defence capabilities and strengthen KONGSBERG’s presence in Poland. The facility will be an integrated part of KONGSBERG’s global manufacturing network, to serve Poland and other future European customers,” said Eirik Lie, president and CEO of Kongsberg.

The factory follows the contract Kongsberg and Polish state defense group Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa signed with the Polish Armaments Agency on Jan. 30 for the SAN counter-drone program, named after a river in eastern Poland. Kongsberg’s share of that deal is about 16 billion Norwegian kroner (about $1.67 billion) for 18 counter-drone batteries, while the full SAN program is valued at around 15 billion zlotys and also involves Gdynia-based company APS, which supplies the command-and-control system linking the batteries into a single network. The batteries are built around Kongsberg’s PROTECTOR family of weapon stations, including the MCT30 turret, and can carry 35 mm, 30 mm and 12.7 mm guns, interceptor drones and 70 mm guided missiles, which serve as the main weapon for SAN. Deliveries of the first elements began this year, with the whole system due to be completed within two years of the contract signing.

Poland has invested heavily in drone defense since September 2025, when more than a dozen Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine, prompting NATO jets to shoot several down over Polish territory. The SAN program is meant to give the Polish Armed Forces a mobile layer of guns, missiles and interceptors that can move to protect bases, cities and critical infrastructure against drones and loitering munitions.

Kongsberg has worked in Poland for more than 15 years, during which it has set up a sustainment center for the Naval Strike Missile, the anti-ship missile Poland fields in its coastal defense units, at the WZE military electronics plant, and formed partnerships with a range of Polish defense companies. The new counter-drone factory extends that presence into a second major product line and deepens defense ties between Poland and Norway, which already cooperate closely on coastal missile defense.

Kongsberg says construction on the Pomeranian site will begin in early 2027 once the building contract is signed, putting the factory on track for its first serial deliveries of SAN equipment in the first half of 2028.