Executive Brief: Boosting European Digital Defence Innovation

Executive Summary

Traditional defence systems alone no longer guarantee security. Today’s hybrid conflicts – blurring the lines between peace and war – rely on disruptive but low-cost tools like drones, cyberattacks and misinformation. These tactics paralyse critical infrastructure, disrupt societies and erode military effectiveness.

Europe’s defence capabilities are at a crossroads. Digitalisation is no longer optional—it is essential to maintaining security, countering hybrid threats, and ensuring operational superiority. Modern defence requires real-time intelligence, resilient digital infrastructure, and advanced cybersecurity to safeguard critical entities from digital attacks and electronic warfare.

Achieving these goals demands greater interoperability across EU armed forces and allies, investment in dual-use technologies—including AI, big data, quantum computing, 5G and next-generation connectivity, satellite communication, and additive manufacturing—and stronger public-private collaboration to match the speed of commercial innovation.

Europe must act now. Without swift action, it risks falling behind in an era where digital threats evolve faster than traditional defence structures can adapt.

This briefing note outlines three key messages to advance European Digital Defence Innovation, backed by six success indicators and nine policy recommendations, which are further explained in the Annex.