Croatian-engineered automation tackles a key NATO ammunition bottleneck

(Photo: FISAZA)

PARIS, June 15, 2026 – Paris is hosting Eurosatory, the world’s largest land and airland defence exhibition, which gathers more than 2,000 exhibitors and around 76,000 visitors from over 60 countries.

Amid all that hardware, at stand F287 in Hall 4, one company is drawing the attention of the industry.

FISAZA is not exhibiting weapons in Paris, but rather something the market is genuinely short of, an automated production line for filling primers and initiating caps, with capacities that existing manufacturers have not been able to offer.

To understand why this matters, it helps to know where ammunition production gets stuck today.

The war in Ukraine exposed that Western industry had for years not been geared for high volumes, and one of the most stubborn bottlenecks is precisely the filling of the small initiating components, the primers and caps that set off the entire ammunition system.

That work is still largely done by hand, slowly and with a high risk to workers, so the whole industry struggles to scale. Without enough of these small parts, even the largest capacity elsewhere in the chain is of little use.

It is exactly this step that FISAZA shows solved and automated in Paris. The heart of the solution is a patented dosing and filling technology, combined with the company’s own transport system based on levitating plates.

(Photo: FISAZA)

Instead of a conventional conveyor, the carriers holding the components float and move magnetically, which delivers greater precision, fewer moving parts prone to wear and failure, and the near complete removal of human contact from the most dangerous part of the process.

The line runs in front of visitors at the stand, so the effect can be seen live. Its greatest strength is scale. Thanks to this technology a single line reaches production capacities three to four times higher than those of existing manufacturers on the market, and it does so with fewer people and greater safety.

(Photo: FISAZA)

In an industry where Europe and NATO are struggling to raise ammunition output at all, such a leap is not a technical footnote but a strategic advantage. In terms of throughput, one FISAZA line can replace several conventional plants, which fundamentally changes the calculation for any country or company that wants to scale up its own production quickly and safely.

Behind the technology lies a story worth telling.

In Paris, FISAZA appears as a company headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, yet its development and engineering come from Croatia, which is why the Croatian and Emirati flags stand side by side next to the logo at the stand. Croatian expertise creates the solution, while the Emirati business platform opens access to markets and customers in a sector where a small country struggles to break through on its own.

(Photo: FISAZA)

The target markets are the countries of the NATO alliance. The company does not simply want to sell this technology, but to use it to position factories and partnerships at strategic locations within the NATO alliance, moving capacity closer to those who need it most.

It speaks of ten strategic positions, of which, according to the company, two have already been secured, while it also announces a strategic project in Croatia.

The technology premiered earlier this year at the World Defense Show in Riyadh, after which the first contracts for automated lines followed, and Paris is now its largest appearance before a global audience.

(Photo: FISAZA)

The message from Paris is clear. While Europe struggles to increase ammunition production, part of the solution to one of its toughest bottlenecks is coming from Croatian minds, presented on the world’s biggest defence stage.