The Defence Industrial Base as Strategic Asset

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.

This analysis 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?