EUROPEAN DEFENCE GAP: Capabilities, Shortfalls and the Road to Strategic Autonomy
A Comprehensive Assessment of European Military Capabilities, Industrial Deficiencies,
After three decades of post–Cold War contraction, European states are attempting to rebuild credible military capacity under compressed timelines, rising threat perceptions, and an evolving transatlantic division of labour. While the political and regulatory architecture for defence mobilisation has been largely established through successive EU and NATO initiatives, a measurable gap persists between financial commitments and operational readiness. By analysing expenditure patterns, capability shortfalls, industrial bottlenecks, command structures, and deterrence architecture across key domains, this report evaluates the distance between declared ambition and deployable power, identifying where progress is tangible, where structural constraints endure, and where Europe’s defence transformation remains contingent on decisions not yet taken.