On behalf of the German Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Security and Defense, we are pleased to present at the official NATO Side Event "What if it Breaks? The Resilience of Allied Defense Industries from the Factory Floor to the Front Line."
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and amid pressure from the Trump administration, NATO Allies have pledged unprecedented levels of defense investment. Yet how resilient are the companies that must deliver on these commitments if they themselves become targets across a range of escalation scenarios, from peace to conflict?
As an official Side Event of the NATO Summit, this roundtable will take place on July 7. We will discuss how resilient Allied defense industries truly are across the spectrum from peace to conflict, and what it would take to keep them standing should the front line ever reach the factory floor.
The roundtable brings together renowned experts from NATO, the European and Ukrainian defense industry and research , ensuring a balanced perspective across government, industry, and academia. Discussions will examine supply chain dependencies, regulatory frameworks, workforce availability, industrial capacity, and exposure to hybrid threats, structured around three escalation scenarios: the current baseline, heightened tension, and an Article 5 contingency.
Among the questions to be addressed:
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How resilient is NATO's defense ecosystem today, and how would that change under escalating security conditions?
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Where are the most critical structural vulnerabilities, supply chains, regulatory constraints, workforce availability, cybersecurity, hybrid threats, or industrial capacity, and how do we address them?
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Are the legal and political mechanisms for transitioning defense industries to contingency operations fit for purpose?
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What can Allies learn from each other's, or third parties', approaches to defense industrial resilience?
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How can NATO foster a joint approach to strengthening defense ecosystem resilience across member states?
The event takes the form of a 90-minute closed-door roundtable, with an expected audience of around 20 senior guests from government, industry, parliament, NATO, and the research and media community.