FT: European military factories expand three times faster than before the war
Photo: Rheinmetall

European military factories are expanding production three times faster than before the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, writes Financial Times .

She calls it rearmament on a historic scale.

The journalists made this conclusion after analyzing more than 1000 satellite images of 150 facilities of 37 companies in Europe. Sentinel-1 radar satellites were used, which can detect changes on the surface even where optical images do not show them.

The analysis showed that about a third of the inspected facilities showed signs of expansion or construction work. While in peacetime (2020-2021), construction activity was recorded on an area of 790,000 square meters, in 2024-2025 this figure increased to 2.8 million square meters.

A key, but not the only, catalyst was the EU's €500 million ASAP (Act in Support of Ammunition Production) program, aimed at overcoming bottlenecks in the production of ammunition and missiles. Companies that received this funding expanded much faster than others.

Among the largest projects is a joint plant between Germany's Rheinmetall and Hungary's N7 Holding in Várpalota, Hungary, which produces 155-mm artillery shells. BAE Systems increases its 155-mm shell production capacity by 16 times at its plant in Wales. MBDA expands German plant to produce Patriot missiles under $5.6 billion NATO contract.

EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius told the FT that following a full-scale Russian invasion, Europe's annual munitions production capacity has increased from 300,000 to about 2 million by the end of this year.

  • In May, the EU Council approved a regulation establishing a new financial instrument - the Security Initiative for Europe (SAFE), which provides up to €150 billion to support joint defense procurement in member states. The main goal is to strengthen the production capacity of the European defense industry and increase preparedness for threats.
  • The SAFE instrument is part of the broader ReArm Europe plan aimed at mobilizing up to 800 billion euros to strengthen defense.