Europe is aggressively ramping up its military spending and increasingly relying on multinational procurement programs to secure weapons systems. A recent study by consulting firm Strategy&, reported by “Der Spiegel”, reveals a staggering 230% increase in procurement volume through these collaborative efforts between 2021 and 2025, reaching approximately €66 billion. While national arms acquisitions still account for the majority – roughly €127 billion – these figures highlight a significant shift away from purely domestic sourcing, yet simultaneously expose critical shortcomings in Europe’s overall defense industrial capabilities.
“Europe must unleash its full industrial power to become defense-ready” stated Albert Zimmermann, a Strategy& partner and arms procurement expert. He emphasized that a fragmented approach, with individual nations replicating efforts, is unsustainable. The need for greater multinational procurement is driven by a desire to standardize requirements and optimally leverage industrial skills across borders.
While these multinational projects are often politically and organizationally complex, Zimmerman underscored that no single European state possesses the comprehensive industrial capacity or financial resources to independently develop and produce increasingly sophisticated systems. International procurement organizations like OCCAR (Organisation for Joint Arms Cooperation) and the European Defence Agency (EDA) are identified as crucial instruments for coordinating these efforts. OCCAR, for instance, recently managed the procurement of the H145M light combat helicopter for the German Bundeswehr and other European armies.
Zimmermann maintains these organizations have demonstrated their ability to effectively support the development and delivery of complex arms systems on time, to high quality and within budget. However, their capacity is currently constrained by limited resources. OCCAR operates with a mere 400 employees, dwarfed by the German Bundeswehr’s procurement agency, which boasts approximately 11,800.
Beyond large-scale collaborative acquisitions, the report highlights the need to streamline and decentralize procurement processes for tactical and standardized weapons. This acknowledges the increasing urgency of responding to evolving threats, a challenge exemplified by Ukraine’s newly created DOT-chain Defence platform – a digital catalogue facilitating rapid ordering of mass-produced drones and other weaponry. The absence of a comparable system within Germany underscores a lingering gap in Europe’s ability to rapidly adapt to changing security landscapes and risks perpetuating inefficiencies in the continent’s defense spending. The shift towards multinational procurement, while presenting its own challenges, appears to be a defining characteristic of Europe’s evolving defense strategy, but requires significant investment and structural reform to reach its full potential.