Europe| Raising the boom
Europe’s armsmakers have ramped up capacity
Now they need governments to place bigger orders
A man works on the Marder APC production line at the Rheinmetall factory in Kassel, Germany, July 25th 2023
Photograph: Reuters
For years European officials have talked a big game on defence. The European Union has made numerous proposals to boost the continent’s puny production of arms. Three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, what do Europe’s armsmakers have to show for themselves? The Economist has compiled data for Europe’s ten biggest defence firms, and looked across four lines of military output. There is more momentum than critics imagine, though gaps remain.