{"id":22191,"date":"2026-02-13T14:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T12:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedefender.media\/?p=22191"},"modified":"2026-02-13T15:19:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:19:36","slug":"stark-new-rnd-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedefender.media\/en\/2026\/02\/stark-new-rnd-in-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"German STARK Defence to expand Ukrainian presence with new R&amp;D centre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">European defence technology company <a href=\"https:\/\/thedefender.media\/en\/tags\/stark\/\">STARK Defence<\/a> has announced the opening of a new research and development (R&amp;D) centre in Ukraine, aimed at strengthening its regional presence. The announcement was made ahead of the Munich Security Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Stark, the R&amp;D centre will cover an area of more than 2,000 square metres and is designed to house over 200 specialists. The facility will focus on research, systems integration, training, and technical support. This move is expected to accelerate the transition from initial design to the serial production of unmanned technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company stated that developing systems close to their operational deployment areas will allow for faster adaptation of technologies based on real-world battlefield data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-align-left wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/thedefender.media\/en\/2026\/02\/farsight-vision-raised-seed-round\/\"><strong>Read more:<\/strong> Farsight Vision raises \u20ac7.2M \u2013 who invested and what\u2019s next for the team<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to research, the centre will provide local user training and continuous technical support. Stark also plans to establish local manufacturing capabilities and integrate regional supply chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Founded in 2023, Stark Defence specialises in advanced unmanned aerial systems, working closely with partners in Ukraine and across Europe. The company already maintains a representative office in Ukraine and has recently signed a contract to supply Virtus drones to a NATO member state, with the first deliveries scheduled for early 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The facility will span over 2,000 sq m and employ more than 200 specialists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","_featured_category_order":0,"_article_badge":"featured","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[553,216,554,195],"class_list":["post-22191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investments","tag-germany","tag-industry","tag-stark","tag-uav","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>German STARK Defence to open new R&amp;D centre in Ukraine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The facility will span over 2,000 sq m and employ more than 200 specialists. Read more on the Defender Media.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thedefender.media\/en\/2026\/02\/stark-new-rnd-in-ukraine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"German STARK Defence to open new R&amp;D centre in Ukraine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The facility will span over 2,000 sq m and employ more than 200 specialists. 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