The Staggering Cost of Losing Europe’s Arms Market | 8 Months Later - Aerospace

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Fort Worth, Texas, is home to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 production line — nearly nineteen thousand jobs depend on the jet, with over seventy-five thousand more supported across Texas. But while Donald Trump promises to “bring jobs back,” his threats to NATO and talk of “watered-down” exports are pushing European governments toward homegrown defense industries. The result: a boom for Airbus, Dassault, Saab, MBDA, Leonardo, BAE Systems, and Europe’s space players.

 

 Across Europe, order books are swelling. Dassault’s Rafale is winning contracts not just in Europe but also in Asia and Africa. Saab’s Gripen is securing new deals and missile upgrades. Airbus Defence & Space has turned the A-400M Atlas and A-330 MRTT into staples across NATO and beyond, while the Eurofighter Typhoon continues to anchor European air power. MBDA’s Meteor, Storm Shadow/SCALP, and Aster missiles are outpacing U.S. rivals like Raytheon’s AIM-120. Leonardo’s AW101, AW139, AW169, AW189, and NH90 helicopters are filling roles once dominated by Sikorsky’s Black Hawk and Seahawk.
 

 Meanwhile, Boeing struggles with the KC-46 Pegasus tanker and falling behind Airbus’s MRTT, while its stock still lags from the 2020 collapse. Lockheed faces lost F-35 sales as countries hedge bets on the Franco-German-Spanish FCAS and the UK-Italy-Japan GCAP sixth-gen fighter projects.

 

 Europe’s space industry is accelerating too. Starlink may dominate Ukrainian battlefield comms, but Eutelsat’s merger with OneWeb and SES’s tie-up with Intelsat are creating true European satcom competitors. ICEYE operates the world’s largest private SAR satellite constellation, delivering critical data to Ukraine, Poland, and Portugal. Launch capability is spreading beyond Kourou: Ariane 6 is flying, Vega-C is back, Avio stock is surging, and private unicorn Isar Aerospace joins Rocket Factory Augsburg and Orbex in chasing small-launcher markets. New launch sites at Esrange (Sweden), SaxaVord (UK), and Andøya (Norway) are giving Europe sovereign access to orbit from the Arctic to the equator.

 

 This episode explores how Airbus, Dassault, Saab, MBDA, Leonardo, BAE Systems, Avio, Eutelsat, SES, ICEYE, Isar Aerospace, ArianeGroup, Safran, and others are reshaping Europe’s aerospace and defense landscape. We break down fighters, transports, tankers, AWACS, missiles, helicopters, satellites, and launchers — and how Trump’s foreign policy has unintentionally fueled one of Europe’s biggest defense industry booms in decades.

 

 

 

Source:  MilitaryRated