Sovereign Microelectronics and the Galileo PRS Value Chain: Who Controls the Critical Nodes
The integration of Galileo’s Public Regulated Service into European defence platforms is not primarily a technology problem — it is an industrial power problem. Access to PRS-capable receiver hardware is governed by a layered regime of security accreditation, cryptographic authorisation, and Member State-controlled user management that shapes market participation as decisively as any commercial dynamic. Within that regime, the question of who holds manufacturing authority — not merely assembly competence, but accredited control over crypto modules, RF interference mitigation, and qualified ASIC supply chains — determines which firms become sovereign enablers and which remain peripheral integrators. This analysis maps the PRS receiver value chain below the prime contractor level, identifies the structural control points where industrial power is concentrating in the 2026–2028 window, and draws out the implications for capital allocation in a market where qualification barriers, export constraints, and EU-based sourcing requirements are increasingly treated as product requirements rather than regulatory overhead.