The Defence Industrial Base as Strategic Asset
How Europe Is Relearning That Production Capacity Is Deterrence
22 pages · PDF · 19 March 2026 · Licensed single-user copy, watermarked to the buyer
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About this report
The European defence debate is undergoing a structural transformation. For decades, the defence industrial base was treated primarily as a supply function, tasked with delivering platforms, munitions, and sustainment within a predictable procurement cycle. That framework is no longer adequate.
The combined effects of the Ukraine war, renewed high-intensity conflict scenarios, and widening industrial asymmetries with peer competitors have demonstrated that the decisive variable is not the inventory available at a given moment, but the ability to regenerate and scale that inventory under sustained operational pressure.
Key questions this report answers
- Why is the defence industrial base shifting from a supply function to a strategic asset?
- How does the ability to regenerate and scale inventory under sustained pressure form a deterrence logic of production capacity?
- What regulatory, fiscal, ownership, and export dimensions shape the transformed industrial base?
- What policy recommendations and analytical implications follow for European defence?
Inside this report
- The conceptual shift
- Historical context
- The deterrence logic of production capacity
- The regulatory and fiscal architecture
- The ownership and sovereignty dimension
- The export dimension
- The innovation imperative
- Policy recommendations and DFM analytical implications
Who it's for
Strategy, corporate-development and investment teams that need an ecosystem-level view — budgets, industrial capacity and technology landscapes — before committing capital or capacity.
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Methodology, format & delivery
DFM reports are built from primary and official sources — TED procurement notices, CORDIS and the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, EIB operations, the NATO Innovation Fund portfolio, SIPRI data, official budget documents and company disclosures — read together with the underlying legal texts. Sources are cited in the document; it reflects them as of its publication date (19 March 2026). You receive a 22-page PDF, watermarked to you on every page, delivered on the confirmation page and by e-mail immediately after checkout (personal link valid 72 hours, up to 5 downloads). Guest checkout, single-user licence — Terms of Sale.
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