The European Military Nuclear Industrial Base
A Structured Mapping of Private-Sector Participation and Capability Across the United Kingdom, France, and the Wider European Supply Ecosystem
France and the United Kingdom are the only European states that operate complete national nuclear weapons enterprises. Yet neither enterprise functions in isolation. Each depends on an extensive network of private-sector firms that design, build, integrate, maintain, secure, and enable strategic submarines, delivery systems, naval reactors, warhead-related infrastructure, and high-assurance facilities. The central question addressed in this report is therefore not simply which companies are involved, but how the European private industrial base is structurally embedded within the military nuclear enterprise. Specifically, which private entities can be demonstrably linked to defined nuclear-enterprise functions through authoritative public sources, and which additional firms possess verifiable capabilities that make them realistically eligible to participate in such programmes under existing regulatory and security constraints.
The report is organised around a functional decomposition of the military nuclear enterprise rather than a generic contractor list. It first defines the methodological framework, including evidentiary standards, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the distinction between demonstrated participation and capability-based eligibility. It then maps the enterprise across core functions: strategic delivery platforms and their sustainment; delivery systems; naval nuclear propulsion; warhead-enterprise infrastructure as publicly visible; high-assurance construction and facilities engineering; security, transport, and handling; and the enabling industrial base. Within each function, companies are classified by tier role and evidentiary status. The report concludes with a structured company-mapping appendix presented in consistent prose format, enabling traceability, reproducibility, and due-diligence review.