Mission Readiness at the Push of a Button Why Digital Interoperability Is Europe’s Defence Imperative

Europe’s defence forces face a paradox: unprecedented investment and political will, yet persistent delays in flagship programs. The culprit is not technology itself, but the lack of digital interoperability. Without a connected, agile data backbone linking nations, OEMs, and suppliers, Europe risks building 20th-century processes for 21st-century threats.

Europe’s defence industry is facing a digital dilemma. On one hand, there is growing political momentum and significant funding for modernization and rearmament. On the other, many programs, like FCAS or MGCS, are stalling. The reason is not a lack of technical innovation but rather systemic digital fragmentation. Data remains fragmented across platforms, departments, OEMs, and nations. Collaboration across borders becomes nearly impossible due to incompatible IT and engineering architectures. The result is a defence ecosystem that is too slow, too disjointed, and ultimately unfit to match the velocity of emerging threats. What Europe needs now is not more isolated innovation, but a fundamental shift toward digital interoperability. Only a connected, agile ecosystem will deliver on the promise of readiness at the push of a button.