Europe’s defence-industrial expansion is counted in appropriations, orders, new buildings and delivery schedules, and those are the figures that move share prices and parliamentary debates. None of them establishes that an additional manufacturer can execute a military contract. A company may own the machine tools, employ the engineers and hold the floor space, and still be unable to receive the drawing it would need to quote, unable to place a classified subcontract, unable to produce the test report its customer requires, or unable to have the resulting article accepted. Between industrial capability and contract performance sits a conversion process in which a particular legal entity, at particular premises, with particular personnel, information systems, quality arrangements and product configurations, must become acceptable to a customer and, in several cases, to national security, quality or technical authorities that are not the customer. That process has costs, and it has a duration, and neither is visible in the headline figures.