Ammunition, Missiles and Air Defence
The hard test of European defence autonomy
European defence autonomy is no longer measured by political declarations or headline spending alone. It is measured by the ability to turn public money into artillery rounds, missile stocks, air-defence interceptors, energetic materials, delivery slots and replenishable inventories. This is the sector in which readiness becomes visible: not as an abstract strategic ambition, but as output rates, delivery times, supplier concentration, stockpile depth and the capacity of European industry to sustain demand under pressure.
The report analyses this problem in four steps. It first explains why ammunition, missiles and air defence are the decisive test of European readiness. It then examines the ammunition and energetic-materials base, including propellants, explosives, shell filling and production bottlenecks. The third section turns to missiles, long-range strike, anti-tank systems and air-defence interceptors. The final section maps the industrial and financial implications, identifying the companies, supply-chain layers and procurement frameworks most exposed to Europe’s transition from higher defence spending to sustained industrial mobilisation.