The Emergence of a Distributed European Defence Industry

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has fundamentally altered the strategic and industrial foundations of European security. The conflict has demonstrated that high-intensity, industrial-scale warfare has returned to the European continent and that sustaining such warfare requires a defence industrial capacity capable of producing large volumes of equipment, ammunition, sensors, drones, and electronic systems at sustained speed.

The war has simultaneously exposed structural weaknesses within Europe’s defence industrial landscape, including fragmented procurement structures, limited surge production capacity, and persistent dependence on external suppliers.

This analysis answers: How has Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine altered the strategic and industrial foundations of European security? What structural weaknesses (fragmented procurement, limited surge capacity, external dependence) did the war expose? How do wartime industrial acceleration, joint production and industrial geography reshape a distributed European defence industry? What strategic implications follow for capital, standards and industrial integration?