European defence companies

For decades Europe outsourced parts of its defence to American suppliers and American security guarantees. The Ukraine war and two Trump terms made that strategy look fragile. Europe is rearming — and crucially, it's rearming with European systems. €100B+ German defence fund. UK strategic defence review. EDF (European Defence Fund) deployment. ReArm Europe.

The underlying point: Europe genuinely already builds world-class defence systems. The Rafale and Eurofighter compete with the F-35. The Leopard 2 and Leclerc are the tanks Ukraine actually asked for. Airbus runs the secure satellite networks. Saab's Gripen is the fighter most non-aligned democracies pick when they want capability without American export-control entanglement.

Below: ten European defence companies that already make the systems European armed forces depend on. Most are decades-old prime contractors. A few are smaller national champions punching above their weight. None of them need American licences to ship.