The irresistible attraction

What this report covers

Technologies: Autonomous Systems, Robotics & Swarms, Hypersonics & Advanced Missile Systems, Platform Systems & Legacy Platform Modernisation. A sourced, structured 9-page analysis for European defence and dual-use decision-makers, from the DFM research desk and built on official and primary sources.

About this report

A single idea has captured the defence imagination on both sides of the world: that a new generation of cheap, rapidly producible, seemingly revolutionary systems — drones, autonomous craft, loitering and coastal missiles — has overturned the old economy of force.

In Europe the conviction was forged in Ukraine, where uncrewed surface vessels drove a far larger Russian fleet from the western Black Sea, and where first-person-view drones turned a few hundred dollars into a destroyed armoured vehicle; it is now capitalised by a defence-technology boom that has minted billion-dollar start-ups on the promise of software-defined, attritable mass.

Key questions this report answers

• Does the report's Jeune Ecole and torpedo-boat parallel suggest today's cheap-drone revolution will follow the same historical arc?
• Based on the Ukraine Black Sea experience, what can FPV drones and uncrewed surface vessels actually do, and what can they not do?
• Why does the report characterise attritable affordable mass as a financial illusion and a fiscal trap?
• How should investors weigh the billion-dollar valuations of software-defined defence start-ups against an asymmetry that runs both ways?

Inside this report

• The Seduction That Always Returns
• The Torpedo Boat and the Jeune École
• The Culminating Point of the Cheap
• The Torpedo Did Not Die — It Migrated
• The Antitank Missile and the Israeli Reply
• What the Drone Can Do — and What It Cannot
• The Asymmetry Runs Both Ways
• The Financial Illusion of the Cheap
• The Fiscal Trap
• The Stakes

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.

Related reports

• EU Allocates €910M to Boost Defence Innovation
• Emerging Investments in Air Defence and Electronic Warfare — Ukraine
• UK Orders New LAND CEPTOR Launchers from MBDA: Implications for European Autonomy — United Kingdom
• Five Years of Defence and Dual-Use Acquisitions in Europe (2020–2025)
• Next-Generation Platforms (FCAS, MGCS, Eurodrone) (Operational Priorities)
• Italy’s Underwater Defence Ecosystem: Tier-2 and Tier-3 Companies Driving Naval and Subsea Capabilities — Italy

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 (05 June 2026). You receive a 9-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.

Related on DFM

More Strategic reports · Autonomous Systems, Robotics & Swarms · Hypersonics & Advanced Missile Systems · Platform Systems & Legacy Platform Modernisation · Free summary of this report · All reports

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