The UK has attracted the largest share of new European defence manufacturing facility investment recorded since the start of 2024, according to research by Cushman & Wakefield covering almost 200 announced or opened sites across the continent.
The property consultancy identified 197 defence manufacturing facility investments between January 2024 and August 2026. Of those, 34 were in the UK, representing 17% of the European total. Germany followed with 27 investments, France with 26, and Spain with 12, placing the four countries at the centre of a capacity expansion spanning munitions, aircraft, ships, vehicles, weapons, components, and autonomous systems.
The figures measure facility announcements and openings rather than production output or contract value, but they provide a physical indicator of how defence order books are being translated into factories, production lines, and industrial property requirements. More than half of the investments identified across Europe relate to new facilities rather than extensions to existing sites, while the most common requirement for newly created sites falls in the 10,000m² to 25,000m² range.
The UK’s strongest concentration is in drones and autonomous systems. Ten of the 21 production facility openings and investment announcements identified in that category since 2024 are in Britain. The country has also attracted eight aircraft and naval manufacturing investments, reflecting established aerospace and shipbuilding capability alongside newer demand for uncrewed systems.
Cushman & Wakefield’s wider European data shows artillery and munitions as the largest individual category, with 52 facility investments. Aircraft and ships account for another 43 commitments. The distribution is uneven: central and eastern European markets have attracted a substantial share of munitions investment, while established industrial bases in the UK, France, and Germany continue to draw projects requiring specialist engineering, skilled labour, and secure production infrastructure.
The property requirement is more complicated than finding empty factory space. Defence production can require enhanced physical security, controlled access, reinforced floors, specialist power and ventilation, separation distances, blast protection, test areas, and secure logistics. Munitions and energetics add further planning and safety constraints, while aerospace and naval programmes can depend on unusually large assembly areas, heavy lifting, and long-term access to specialised supply chains.
Tim Crighton, head of logistics and industrial for the UK and EMEA at Cushman & Wakefield, described the UK as “exceptionally well positioned” for the next phase of defence-led industrial growth. The research also points to a second-order effect as prime contractors and Tier 1 suppliers increase capacity and pass larger order volumes into smaller suppliers.
That supplier effect may be as important as the headline factory count. The UK manufacturing base already contains machining, fabrication, electronics, casting, composites, coatings, and systems businesses serving automotive, energy, and general engineering markets. Some are assessing defence as a diversification route, but qualification, security requirements, documentation, and long programme cycles mean spare machine capacity cannot automatically be converted into approved defence output.
Automotive suppliers are already seeking support to move existing manufacturing capability into aerospace and defence programmes, while separate manufacturing research has found growing interest in defence diversification. Larger programmes can create demand well beyond the prime contractor, but expansion will spread through the supply chain only where smaller businesses can finance equipment, people, approvals, and working capital.
Government spending provides the demand backdrop rather than a guarantee of individual factory utilisation. The Defence Investment Plan published in June committed a further £15 billion between 2026/27 and 2029/30, taking planned UK defence investment to about £298 billion over four years. Separate plans include £11 billion for munitions and weapons production and at least six new energetics factories by 2030.
Announced capacity and productive capacity are not the same thing. A new building does not increase defence output until machinery is installed, staff are recruited, processes are qualified, and suppliers can feed material into the line at the required rate. Specialist equipment lead times and shortages of experienced engineers can therefore limit the speed at which capital spending becomes deliverable volume.
The facility data nevertheless shows that the expansion has moved beyond procurement announcements into physical industrial commitments. Thirty-four UK projects in less than three years represent a sizeable addition to a sector where facilities are often expensive, specialised, and intended to operate for decades. Whether the wider supplier base expands at a similar pace will determine if new prime-level capacity increases output or simply moves bottlenecks further down the production chain.
