No. 9. The Invisible Backbone: Europe’s Defence Is Built by Companies Nobody Knows
You know the OEMs.But the real work happens in places you’ve never heard of.Small teams — 10, 20 maybe 40 people — delivering critical:Innovationprecision partselectronicscompositessoftware modulesmachiningtoolingcomponents that keep entire platforms operationalThese SMEs rarely appear in press releases.But the truth is:Europe’s defence systems live or die based on companies with fewer than 50 employees.If Europe wants industrial autonomy these SMEs must be supported, upgraded and integrated at scale.
