The United Kingdom has taken the largest single share of Europe’s defence manufacturing expansion since the start of 2024, attracting 34 of the 197 facility investments announced or opened across the continent in that period, according to research published by Cushman & Wakefield.
That share of 17 per cent puts Britain ahead of Germany, which accounted for 27 investments, France with 26 and Spain with 12. The property consultancy tracked announcements and openings between January 2024 and August 2026 covering drones, missiles, munitions, combat air systems and other advanced defence technologies, treating each as a driver of demand for industrial and logistics space.
The Defence Investment Plan committed an additional £15 billion between 2026-27 and 2029-30, taking planned defence investment to around £298 billion across the four-year period, and annual defence funding is expected to approach £80 billion by 2029. Governments across Europe are expected to spend more than €625 billion on defence equipment between 2026 and 2029.
The concentration of that money in Britain, France and Germany reflects their standing as the three largest defence producers in Europe, and Spain, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands have also drawn significant new investment. Central and eastern Europe, led by Poland, accounts for a substantial share, weighted heavily towards artillery and munitions, which the researchers attribute both to proximity to the war in Ukraine and to those countries ramping up their own defensive capabilities while contributing to wider EU and NATO initiatives.
Artillery and munitions is the largest single category across the continent at 52 facility announcements, bolstered by the European Union’s Act in Support of Ammunition Production, and almost half of that activity is in central and eastern Europe. Aircraft and ships account for 43 commitments, driven in particular by Airbus, Safran and Leonardo, while investment in vehicles has come from BAE Systems, Patria, Rheinmetall, Iveco, Escribano and KNDS. Companies in systems and components have invested heavily as well, across radar and sensor systems, communications and navigation.
Ten of the 21 drone and autonomous vehicle production facility openings and investment announcements recorded since 2024 have been in the United Kingdom, the largest concentration anywhere in Europe. The research counts aerial, surface and ground systems together in that total, and describes their deployment in Ukraine and the Middle East as having driven substantial investment in development and production. Eight aircraft and naval manufacturing investments have also come to Britain, the second-largest share in that category.
Tim Crighton, head of logistics and industrial for the UK and EMEA at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “The UK is exceptionally well positioned to capture this next phase of defence-led industrial growth. Alongside established strengths in aerospace and naval manufacturing, we are seeing increasing investment in drones, autonomous systems and other advanced defence technologies. These sectors are creating demand across a broad range of industrial assets, from purpose-built production facilities to existing industrial buildings that can be adapted and brought into operation swiftly. Working across a range of these projects, we can see the significant investment going into these facilities which in turn is driving economic growth and new skilled employment opportunities.”
More than half of the investments across Europe, 54 per cent, involve newly created facilities, and 36 per cent are being delivered as new-build developments. The average unit size committed to is around 20,000 square metres, and the most frequently demanded buildings fall between 10,000 and 25,000 square metres. Converted buildings feature more heavily in the existing space taken, typically legacy industrial assets taken over wholesale for new production lines.
Many manufacturers can work from conventional industrial buildings adapted for production rather than purpose-built plants, though the research sets out where defence differs from an ordinary industrial letting. Some buildings require blast proofing, internal partitioning or segmentation, and depending on the machinery involved, reinforced floors or larger doors. Sites generally need enhanced security, including higher fences, advanced access systems and surveillance. Lease negotiations run longer because of security checks on the asset, the landlord and neighbouring occupiers, and because government approvals can form part of the conditions for contracting space. Tenants tend to seek greater rights to alter buildings from the outset rather than during a tenancy, and may ask for restrictions on access or enhanced security around a landlord’s inspections.
Industrial estates aimed squarely at the sector have begun to appear, among them Telford Defence and Business Park in the West Midlands, which received development permission in 2024 and has funding in place, marketing what it calls defence-ready opportunities within the established West Midlands cluster. Elsewhere, Estonia has developed the 204-hectare Ermistu Defence Industrial Park, which has secured four manufacturers and has room for more, and a 200-hectare scheme is proposed at North Kiviõli with an emphasis on energetic materials. Turkey’s Kırıkkale weapons industry zone, established in 2014 on land belonging to the state manufacturer MKE, has drawn private firms to build factories on the site.
Sally Bruer, head of EMEA logistics and industrial research at the firm, said: “What is particularly notable is how quickly defence manufacturers’ investment is translating into real estate requirements. More than half of the facility commitments we tracked involve new sites, reflecting manufacturers’ need to increase capacity and secure long-term production capability.
“As large procurement programmes move through the supply chain, we expect this to drive increasing demand for smaller and mid-sized industrial facilities across the broader supplier ecosystem as businesses expand production capacity to support the next phase of defence growth.”
Investment so far has been led by the prime contractors and their tier one suppliers, while Europe’s defence ecosystem takes in more than 2,500 specialist small and medium-sized firms. Expansion is harder for those businesses until orders are placed further up the chain and income starts to arrive, and survey work by GLOBCOM cited in the research found that fewer than half of tier two, three and four suppliers have seen the demand growth the primes and tier ones have enjoyed.
