Vaubren fuselage placard: serial VG-001 and EU flag on a burgundy band
COMPANY

Built to defend
open societies.

Vaubren is a European defense technology company, founded in New York and headquartered in Bulgaria, building aircraft, autonomy, and the industry that binds them into one force.

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Founded2026Founded in New York. Headquartered in Bulgaria, a NATO and EU ally.
Systems2Vanguard and Citadel. One network, one autonomy layer.
Campus64,000 m²The Arsenal, our planned production and flight test site. In development.
StageDesignTwo systems in design and development toward first flight.
The Vaubren Arsenal campus from the airTHE ARSENAL
01  Build

One campus. The whole loop.

Design, production, autonomy testing, and flight operations inside one fence. The Arsenal is planned so that every aircraft is flown, jammed, and stressed on the same ground where it was built.

Vaubren staff crossing the campusTHE TEAM
02  People

Deliberately small. Fully accountable.

A team small enough that every system that leaves the Arsenal will carry a name, not a department. Engineers, pilots, and builders on one campus, held to one standard.

The Arsenal commons at eveningTHE COMMONS
03  Live

Live where you build.

Offices, crew quarters, and a shared commons are planned thirty meters from the line. A decision made at dinner should be flying by morning.

Why Bulgaria

The frontier is
the right place to build.

Europe's defense industry is concentrated far from the border it defends. We took the opposite decision. Bulgaria is a NATO and European Union member on the alliance's eastern flank, close enough to the threat that urgency is not theoretical, and inside the union whose sovereignty our systems are built to protect.

It is also one of the few European countries with an unbroken defense manufacturing tradition. The engineering base, the industrial skills and the willingness to build physical things at volume did not have to be re-learned here.

That combination lets us do something the incumbents structurally cannot: hold design, production, autonomy and flight test inside one fence, at a cost structure that makes building at rate possible rather than aspirational.

Our systems are designed for allied governments first. The same aircraft and the same autonomy answer adjacent state missions, border and maritime surveillance, and critical infrastructure monitoring, where the requirement is identical and the procurement path is shorter.

Leadership

A deliberately small team, accountable by name.

RZVaubren

Rafael Zard

Founder and Chief Executive

Founded Vaubren in 2026 and is building its home in Bulgaria, with one mandate: build the defence systems free nations will need for the next fifty years.

AZVaubren

Atanas Zapryanov

Advisor

Lieutenant General (ret.). Minister of Defence of the Republic of Bulgaria (2024 to 2026), three times Deputy Minister of Defence, former Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Bulgaria's Military Representative to the NATO and EU Military Committees.

KIVaubren

Korman Ismailov

Head of Communications

Caretaker Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Bulgaria (2026). Member of the 41st and 43rd National Assemblies, with a career spanning banking and the private sector.

More
01

Mission

Why Vaubren exists and the lines we hold.

02

Leadership

The people accountable for the company, by name.

03

Newsroom

Company announcements and program updates, direct from the source.

Talk to Vaubren.

Vaubren works exclusively with governments and allied armed forces. Bulgaria, EET.

Government inquiries