Defence Finance Monitor Digest #121 (Hidden Champions)
Defence Finance Monitor is building a comprehensive database that maps companies relevant to European strategic autonomy across the defence and dual-use sectors. With more than 1,300 European firms now systematically classified, the database is beginning to generate analytically meaningful results. Built on a proprietary methodology combining a closed taxonomy, structured scoring, and a fact-first analytical approach, the dataset traces how institutional priorities translate into concrete industrial and technological dependencies. At this level of coverage, it enables the systematic identification of the most critical bottlenecks affecting Europe’s defence and dual-use industrial base, together with the tier-2 and tier-3 hidden champions best positioned to address them. The emerging evidence indicates that Europe’s strategic autonomy is constrained less by prime contractors than by the intermediate layers of the supply chain, where specialised capabilities, production capacity, and control over key technologies are decisive.
European Subsea Companies Securing Undersea Infrastructure
This report assesses the capacity of European and allied industrial actors to secure critical undersea infrastructure through autonomous monitoring and deep-water inspection technologies. It examines how a new generation of subsea robotics, sensing systems, and underwater communication platforms is addressing structural dependencies in the protection of data cables, energy pipelines, and other vital connectivity nodes. By mapping these companies against concrete operational bottlenecks, the analysis highlights how industrial capabilities at the tier-2 and tier-3 level contribute to reducing single points of failure and strengthening Europe’s ability to monitor, inspect, and intervene autonomously in the subsea domain.
European Space Companies for Launch and Orbital Surveillance
This report maps European and associated allied enterprises addressing two core space-autonomy bottlenecks: sovereign, responsive access to Low Earth Orbit for small satellite missions and independent, high-fidelity Space Situational Awareness. It examines how a new generation of launch providers, ground-based and space-based sensors, and data-fusion platforms is reducing structural dependencies in access to orbit and orbital monitoring. By linking these companies to concrete operational bottlenecks, the analysis highlights how tier-2 and tier-3 industrial capabilities contribute to lowering single points of failure and strengthening Europe’s ability to deploy, monitor, and protect its space assets autonomously.
European Semiconductor Companies Addressing the Advanced Logic and Substrate Bottleneck
This report maps European tier-2 and tier-3 semiconductor companies that address two tightly linked sovereignty bottlenecks: advanced logic capabilities and secure access to critical substrates and back-end integration. It examines how specialized materials producers, AI-focused logic designers, verification software providers, programmable logic developers, and advanced packaging equipment suppliers reduce structural dependencies across the semiconductor value chain. By linking these enterprises to concrete industrial gaps, the analysis shows how intermediate layers of the ecosystem play a decisive role in limiting single points of failure and strengthening Europe’s capacity to design, manufacture, and deploy critical microelectronics autonomously.
Without a structured map that connects doctrine, budgets and industrial capacity, strategy remains abstract, capital is misallocated, and industrial readiness drifts into reactivity rather than deliberate design.