The Attritable Industrial Base: Financing the European Supply Chain for Mass

Europe’s defence industrial architecture is undergoing a radical transformation, the most significant since the Cold War. The combination of mass-scale attrition warfare in Ukraine and the strategic pivot embodied by the “Drone Wall” along NATO’s Eastern Flank has forced a doctrinal and financial rupture.

For decades, European defence procurement operated under a paradigm of low-volume, high-cost platforms—exquisite in capability but scarce in number. That model has collapsed under the weight of asymmetric threats, where €500 drones threaten assets worth millions.

This analysis answers: How are mass-scale attrition warfare in Ukraine and the 'Drone Wall' along NATO's eastern flank forcing a doctrinal and financial rupture in European defence procurement? How does the financial architecture or capital stack finance a European supply chain built for mass rather than low-volume, high-cost platforms? Where are the critical supply-chain bottlenecks - the 'alpha' - in producing attritable Drone Wall effectors? What strategic conclusions and outlook follow for financing the attritable industrial base?