Fly-by-wire technology, packaged food safety, the quakeproofing of buildings, and rechargeable hearing-aid batteries—the list of innovations linked to the Apollo missions is as long as it is eclectic. NASA is so proud of the civilian applications of the technologies first invented to help put a human being on the moon, it has published its own dedicated web entry, “tech-transfer-spinoffs.”
The European defense industry looks on in envy. For decades, engineering, technical, and industrial processes first explored as methods of keeping nations safe or attacking enemies have also found their way into the civilian world. Infrared cameras were developed by the British for anti-aircraft defense in the 1920s. Annoyingly for the sector—often the butt of protests from those who wave placards—it is poor at publicizing such advances. Or promoting greater understanding of how such defense to civilian transfers support wider economic growth.
The reasons why are easy to fathom. Less than a century ago, Europe was a continent destroyed by conflict. Until the 1990s, the Cold War threatened nuclear destruction over a political fault line that split Europe in half. Defense spending—viewed by many as akin to Big Tobacco, only worse—is often controversial.
The atmosphere is changing. With Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine and America no longer an ever-willing ally, the European defense industry is gaining new fans and significant amounts of investment. Jobs are well paid, and often located in those areas most blighted by manufacturing decline. Productivity levels can be as much as 25% above the national average, a healthy fillip to otherwise anemic economic growth figures.
In the U.K., defense turnover reached £36.5bn ($49.6bn) in 2026, a 65% increase over the past decade, according to the defense industry trade association ADS Group. In the EU defense turnover is now running at €148bn ($172.3bn) annually, an increase of 60% since 2021. Politicians, from the right and, more surprisingly, the left are falling over themselves to reveal their “tough on security” credentials.
This is more than a sophisticated arms race aimed at repelling threats and protecting borders. Defense spending is resurrecting an engineering and manufacturing base many believed had gone forever, replaced by finance, law, and people who make coffee. The U.K., France and Germany are home to world-leading defense companies.
A “NASA moment” would be useful–a direct way of telling the public that, whatever their views on making bombs and drones, the civilian world is well served by a flourishing defense sector beyond the simple fact of keeping nations safe.
Examples of how to achieve such a moment are abundant. Last year the U.K. launched the Technology and Growth Alliance, bringing together the defense industry, investors, and civilian businesses. Spin-outs include BAE Systems’ Rho-C, an ultrasound technology originally built for submarines now being used to support the oil and gas sector and nuclear power plants. Stirling X, backed by Gallos Technologies, a defense fund, is developing drone technology that can map critical infrastructure such as national power grids.
“The U.K. already produces world-class defense innovation. Our challenge is turning more of it into commercial success,” said Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, the chair of the TAG Alliance. Andy Haldane, the former chief economist of the Bank of England, said it was time to tackle the lag between defense breakthroughs and their spread to the wider economy.
In France, the Agence Innovation Defense encourages the development of dual-use technologies. NATO’s DIANA (Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic) does a similar job.
Google was invented in part via funding from the U.S. defense sector. With economic growth struggling, Europe needs to become more confident in promoting the long-tail effects of a revitalized sector.
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