European Defence Companies: an economic snapshot

This article aims to introduce the economic data of a representative panel of European defence companies. This is a first approach. This panel will be consolidated over the years.

The list of selected companies was established taking into account the following criteria:

•  Companies with headquarters located in EU Member States, Norway, United Kingdom and Switzerland.
• Companies considered to be leading and/or historical players in the national DTIB.
• Companies at group head level and under European ownership. However, we have integrated in the panel leading companies in a national sector/segment acquired by non-European companies or investors (i.e. GE Avio, Milrem, Meggit, Meopta, Intracom, ITP).
• Companies for which we have access to robust economic data (annual report, economic and financial databases, press). Several companies could not be included due to the lack of data (i.e. Helsing, GDELS, GNY, DAF Trucks, Schiebel Elektronishe, Dunarit Corp., Arsenal JScompany). Companies in the process of being dismantled/sold or indepth reorganisation were excluded (i.e. Atos, Cobham, Ultra Electronics, RUAG International).
• The panel does not include consulting firms and military training service providers.

The table provides data on total sales and workforce for the years 2022 and 2023, the defence sales share (%) for the year 2023, and the percentage change in total sales (2022 vs 2023). Where data on defence sales is unavailable, we have estimated this figure by cross-checking information from various sources, including declarations and press articles. However, there are still cases where this estimate is made difficult by a lack of information (indicated N/A in the table). Links to the references used are provided at the end of this article. The panel is structured as follows in the table:

•  Transnational companies.
• Alphabetical order by country (and companies by total sales 2023).

Graphs showing the evolution of total sales over the period 2016-2023 of the main companies in the land armament and missiles sectors are presented after the table.