Europe has long enjoyed the safety guarantee of the United States, and because of it, it has been able to spend heavily on healthcare, infrastructure and other areas that increase the quality of life of its citizens, the strength of its economy, or both. Now, unable to depend on its main ally in the way it once did, its governments must make use of the advantages that ally’s guarantee has allowed to gain. If its high-quality systems of education lead to world-class innovation, then it must make use of that.
Because raising defence budgets is not enough. A radical rethink in how Europe goes about defence spending is needed. Because conflict now isn’t just about who has more boots on the ground or the biggest factories. It’s about who has the best technology. And Europe, at the moment, is stuck working according to an old and badly inadequate model. Bureaucracy, bottlenecks, and a misguided emphasis on fairness instead of trusting regional expertise and local advantages are stifling progress. If everyone were allowed to focus on what they do best, we would have better results overall. But quick, creative companies struggle for funding while big, slow legacy contractors absorb vast resources. The risks are twofold: first, stagnation. Second, dependency. Both are extremely dangerous.
Ukraine makes a useful case study. After the Russian invasion in 2022, it didn’t wait for sluggish legacy suppliers to shift into gear. It didn’t have the luxury of doing so. It turned to startups – those companies that could innovate, test, and deploy with speed. The military embraced this shift, and the results were undeniable. In Ukraine, small teams, often staffed with people barely out of university, are designing, building and programming autonomous vehicles that can blow up tanks worth millions more than them.
They’re proof of the reality that European governments must wake up to: technology is now the deciding factor in conflict. And it's a reality that the world’s biggest and best-funded military embraced some time ago. In the United States, agencies like The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) directly support disruptors and innovators. The procurement process is centralized, fast, and fiercely competitive. The result is that the military gets the best tech available. And more and more commercial startups pivot to exploit a lucrative opportunity. AI firms build battlefield intelligence systems. Robotics companies automate surveillance and targeting. Space startups assist missile detection.
But unless defence startups are supported, then they’ll be tempted to stick to civilian applications. Take my own area of expertise, advanced materials. These ultra-resilient fibres shield satellites from electronic interference, ensuring secure military communications. They help fighter jets evade detection. They can protect against electromagnetic magnetic pulses which, if detonated in the right place, could cause a blackout across Europe overnight. The big breakthroughs in this field are not being made by the legacy contractors. They’re coming from young, ambitious companies developing new ways to slash costs, accelerate production and increase modularity without compromising on quality and even increasing it. Europe, with its rich tradition of scientific exploration, cultural transmission and free inquiry, should want to take advantage of these kinds of innovation, rather than reward the complacent, the slow-moving, and the uncreative.
The perception across the continent is that defence startups are risky investments. But this is breathtakingly short-termist. The risk of failing to invest in these startups is far greater than the financial risk, relatively small, of backing them wholeheartedly. If technology is the deciding factor in present and future conflict, then stifling innovation is a huge national and regional security risk. Who will care about a relatively small amount of misspent Euros when the continent boasts world-beating technology and has the muscle to protect itself and its citizens at the most dangerous period in recent world history?
Europe doesn’t have to run the experiment. The Americans have done that for us. What we need to do is copy their highly successful model. Back startups, back innovation, back the big thinkers and the fast movers whose technology will give us the strategic autonomy we have been working towards for over a decade. With €800B just earmarked for defense spending, we have a fantastic opportunity to change the narrative on defence: to embrace innovation and turn away from bureaucracy and the antiquated models of the past.
