The rate of capacity expansion of enterprises in Europe’s military-industrial complex (MIC) has tripled since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the Financial Times has reported.
The FT studied more than 150 industrial facilities belonging to 37 companies. Journalists analysed more than one thousand satellite images. About a third of the images recorded changes indicating construction work.
The newspaper found out that the area of such enterprises has grown by 7 million square metres. If in 2021, work was carried out on an area of 0.79 square kilometres, in the spring of 2024, construction was already underway on 3.02 square kilometres, and this spring on 2.8 square kilometres.
One of the most ambitious construction projects in the military-industrial complex during these three years was a joint project of Germany’s Rheinmetall and the Hungarian State Defence Holding No. 7 in western Hungary, where 30mm ammunition for Rheinmetall’s KF41 Lynx infantry fighting vehicle is produced. Future production of other types of ammunition is foreseen, including for Leopard 2 and Panther tanks.
88 of the 150 facilities analysed are funded by the EU’s “ammunition production support programme” (ASAP), which provides 500 million euros to increase the production of ammunition and missiles.
The publication notes the rearmament of Europe and records a shift from peacetime production “to the creation of an industrial base for sustainable warfare”.