ABSTRACT
Europe’s arms industry is often characterised as fragmented, including by European Union institutions. This In-Depth Paper nuances this common perception based on a mapping of the five largest arms companies in each European Union member state, plus Norway and the United Kingdom. The results suggest that in many sectors and sub-regions the European arms industry is more than a collection of isolated national industrial bases. Western European arms companies offer a wider array of complex products than their Central and Northern counterparts, but Central European countries’ top five firms are most active in the production of small arms and light weapons, ground platforms and hardware components. Additionally, while the arms industry in Central Europe appears isolated from the rest of the continent, purely national industrial bases no longer exist in Western or Northern Europe. Overall, the underdeveloped industrial ties with Central Europe appear as an obstacle to further the Europeanisation of the sector.
