FirstFT: Europe’s defence factories accelerate expansion
What we know: Building activity at European arms sites has gone into overdrive since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to a Financial Times analysis of radar satellite data covering 150 facilities across 37 companies. Using more than 1,000 radar satellite passes, the FT tracked changes at sites associated with ammunition and missile production, two bottlenecks in the west’s support for Ukraine.
Why it matters: The scale and spread of the detected work suggest a generational shift in rearmament, moving Europe from just-in-time peacetime production towards building an industrial base for a more sustained war footing. It also shows that the region’s long-promised defence revival, driven by an injection of public subsidies, is beginning to materialise not just in policy rhetoric but also in concrete and steel. It comes as EU governments argue over how to sustain arms deliveries to Kyiv, as well as rebuilding their own stockpiles, in the face of a potentially wavering US commitment.