{"id":8064,"date":"2026-08-27T13:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/8064\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:45:08","slug":"the-apollo-missions-brought-us-rechargeable-hearing-aid-batteries-and-quakeproof-buildings-the-european-defense-industry-is-now-looking-for-its-own-nasa-moment-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/8064\/","title":{"rendered":"The Apollo missions brought us rechargeable hearing-aid\u00a0batteries\u00a0and quakeproof buildings. The European defense industry is now looking for\u00a0its own “NASA moment”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fly-by-wire\u00a0technology, packaged food safety,\u00a0the\u00a0quakeproofing of buildings,\u00a0and\u00a0rechargeable hearing-aid\u00a0batteries\u2014the\u00a0list of innovations linked to\u00a0the\u00a0Apollo\u00a0missions\u00a0is as long as it is eclectic.\u00a0NASA\u00a0is so proud\u00a0of the civilian applications of the technologies first invented to help put a human being on the moon,\u00a0it\u00a0has\u00a0published\u00a0its own dedicated web\u00a0entry,\u00a0\u201ctech-transfer-spinoffs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The European defense industry\u00a0looks on\u00a0in envy. For\u00a0decades,\u00a0engineering, technical, and industrial processes first\u00a0explored\u00a0as methods of keeping nations safe or attacking enemies\u00a0have also found their way into the civilian world.\u00a0Infrared\u00a0cameras\u00a0were\u00a0developed\u00a0by the\u00a0British for anti-aircraft defense\u00a0in the 1920s.\u00a0Annoyingly for the sector\u2014often the butt of protests\u00a0from those who wave placards\u2014it\u00a0is\u00a0poor\u00a0at publicizing such advances.\u00a0Or\u00a0promoting greater\u00a0understanding of\u00a0how such defense to civilian transfers\u00a0support\u00a0wider economic growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reasons why are\u00a0easy to fathom.\u00a0Less than a century\u00a0ago, Europe was a continent destroyed by\u00a0conflict.\u00a0Until the 1990s, the Cold War threatened nuclear destruction\u00a0over\u00a0a political\u00a0fault line that split\u00a0Europe in half. Defense\u00a0spending\u2014viewed by many\u00a0as akin to Big Tobacco, only worse\u2014is often controversial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0atmosphere is\u00a0changing.\u00a0With Russia\u2019s ongoing war with Ukraine and America no longer an ever-willing ally,\u00a0the\u00a0European\u00a0defense industry is gaining new fans and significant amounts of investment.\u00a0Jobs are\u00a0well paid, and\u00a0often\u00a0located\u00a0in those areas most blighted by manufacturing decline. Productivity levels\u00a0can\u00a0be as much as\u00a025% above the national average,\u00a0a healthy fillip to otherwise anemic economic growth figures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the U.K., defense turnover\u00a0reached \u00a336.5bn\u00a0($49.6bn)\u00a0in 2026, a 65% increase over the past decade, according to\u00a0the\u00a0defense\u00a0industry trade association\u00a0ADS Group. In the\u00a0EU defense turnover\u00a0is now running at\u00a0\u20ac148bn<\/a>\u00a0($172.3bn)\u00a0annually, an increase of 60% since 2021.\u00a0Politicians, from the right and, more surprisingly, the left are falling over themselves to reveal their \u201ctough on security\u201d credentials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is more than a sophisticated arms race aimed at repelling threats and protecting borders. Defense spending is resurrecting an\u00a0engineering and manufacturing base many believed had gone forever, replaced by\u00a0finance, law,\u00a0and people who make coffee.\u00a0The U.K., France and Germany are home to world-leading\u00a0defense\u00a0companies.<\/p>\n

A \u201cNASA moment\u201d would be useful\u2013a direct way of telling the public that, whatever their views on making bombs and drones,\u00a0the civilian world is well served by a flourishing defense\u00a0sector\u00a0beyond the simple fact of keeping nations safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more: Glenn Fogel runs the world\u2019s largest online travel business. He still personally reads customer complaints because \u2018you gotta get that sh*t right\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Examples of how\u00a0to achieve such a moment\u00a0are abundant. Last\u00a0year the U.K.\u00a0launched the Technology and Growth Alliance, bringing together\u00a0the defense industry,\u00a0investors,\u00a0and civilian businesses.\u00a0Spin-outs include\u00a0BAE\u00a0Systems\u2019\u00a0Rho-C,\u00a0an\u00a0ultrasound technology\u00a0originally built for submarines now being used to\u00a0support\u00a0the\u00a0oil and gas\u00a0sector\u00a0and nuclear power plants.\u00a0Stirling X, backed by Gallos Technologies, a defense fund, is developing drone technology that can map critical infrastructure such as national\u00a0power\u00a0grids.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.K.\u00a0already produces world-class defense innovation. Our challenge is turning more of it into commercial success,\u201d said Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, the chair of the\u00a0TAG Alliance.\u00a0Andy Haldane, the former chief economist of the Bank of England, said it was time to\u00a0tackle the lag between defense\u00a0breakthroughs and their spread to the wider economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In\u00a0France,\u00a0the Agence Innovation Defense\u00a0encourages the development of dual-use technologies. NATO\u2019s DIANA (Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic)\u00a0does a similar job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Google was invented in part via funding from the U.S.\u00a0defense sector.\u00a0With economic growth struggling,\u00a0Europe needs to become\u00a0more\u00a0confident in promoting the long-tail\u00a0effects of a\u00a0revitalized\u00a0sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fly-by-wire\u00a0technology, packaged food safety,\u00a0the\u00a0quakeproofing of buildings,\u00a0and\u00a0rechargeable hearing-aid\u00a0batteries\u2014the\u00a0list of innovations linked to\u00a0the\u00a0Apollo\u00a0missions\u00a0is as long as it is eclectic.\u00a0NASA\u00a0is so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14,60,4818,2268,4819,4820,1041],"class_list":["post-8064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-defence-industry","tag-defense","tag-letter-from-london","tag-london","tag-londonarticles","tag-nasa","tag-u-k"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}