A European defence supplier can invoice several prime contractors, ministries and procurement agencies and still depend on far fewer decisions than its customer list implies. The decision that matters may sit above the party that signs the purchase order: a multinational weapons programme, a shared military requirement, a design review or production milestone, a national capability choice, or the authority that ultimately controls the money. The reverse can also hold. A supplier with one large industrial customer may serve several programmes whose budgets, users and procurement cycles are largely independent of one another. For lenders, private-equity owners, boards and industrial planners, the relevant question is therefore not only how concentrated a supplier’s customers are, but how far apparently separate revenue streams rest on common upstream decisions, and how much of that dependence can be established from public evidence. The distinction can be tested against public accounting disclosures and four European procurement structures: Eurodrone, the Royal Navy’s maritime electronic-warfare programme, the United Kingdom’s ECRS Mk2 radar upgrade for Typhoon, and A400M propulsion support.