When Norway’s Defence Materiel Agency awarded Clavister the Tactical Core Network System contract in January 2026, the total value was put at approximately SEK 280 million. By 30 June the supplier’s cash had fallen from SEK 95.930 million at the end of 2025 to SEK 41.741 million, and in its August interim report the company still expected the first payment milestone to be reached in the autumn. The sequence illustrates a problem that runs through European defence technology. A technology can be mature enough to appear as an asset, generate an order or support recognised revenue while still requiring substantial cash before a customer receives an accepted and supportable system. The distinction matters particularly for European technology suppliers whose engineering base is large relative to their balance sheets and whose customers procure through multi-year development, integration and qualification cycles. Capitalised development records only one part of that process. It does not show how much engineering remains, when the customer will pay, whether production or integration working capital has been financed, or whether the technology has crossed the technical and contractual thresholds that turn development into deliverable military capability. The relevant financial object is therefore not the carrying value of technology but the sequence of cash commitments and recoveries between development, qualification, production, delivery and acceptance, and the question is where, and for whom, that sequence becomes visible in public accounts.