On the final day of the Medcap Forum 2026, several defence experts addressed the challenges facing the sector, agreeing that, despite this being a historic moment for defence spending, we are hampered by the fragmentation of European management.
Is Europe ready to compete in defence? Yes, but not by much. That is the conclusion that can be drawn from the reflections of the specialists who opened the first session on the final day of the Medcap Forum 2026.
In a panel discussion moderated by Sara Herrando, Head of Analysis at Kutxabank, which was attended by Manuel de Oliveira, Commercial Director at Amper, Ignacio Martínez González, Managing Director of IndraMind, Ricardo Gómez-Acebo, Partner at Hyperion, andEzequiel Sánchez, CEO of PLD Space, the challenges and opportunities facing a sector that, for some time now, has found its way into government budgets and the strategic decisions of many companies were discussed.
All agreed on the window of opportunity currently facing the sector, but also on the difficulties it faces. Difficulties stemming from the attempt to compete with the sector’s giants from the United States, China or India, from within a European Union that remains fragmented in many respects. And an opportunity because funding has now increased considerably thanks to the expansion of defence budgets.
Highest spending since 1953
Indeed, having had a taste of the wolf’s teeth with the invasion of Ukraine and under pressure from NATO, defence spending in Europe reached its highest level since 1953 in 2025. According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), European countries increased their military spending by 14% compared to 2024, reaching €739 billion, double the figure of 10 years ago.
Despite this increase, the panellists believe that the major problem remains the fragmentation of the European Union, where everything is subdivided into no fewer than 27 defence ministries.
Ricardo Gómez-Acebo, a partner at Hyperion, Spain’s first fund specialising in defence, points out that defence companies in Europe are growing, but fragmentation remains very strong. “There are certain critical areas of software that countries still prefer to keep nationalised, which means 27 software providers have to compete against a single, powerful one from the United States. Until there is a single client in Europe, with a single defence ministry, we will not be competitive”.
Along the same lines, Ignacio Martínez, from IndraMind, emphasises that “the whole underlying problem stems from a fragmented European Union; Europe is on a par with or larger than the United States but highly fragmented”.
Fragmented and over-regulated
The panel moderator stressed the need for strategic sovereignty and autonomy and highlighted the dual dilemma facing companies: the challenge of scale and the challenge of technological specialisation. In this vein, Ezequiel Sánchez, president of PLD Space, noted, “we do not have supply chains prepared for a real crisis; the second problem is import licences; we are dependent on core technologies.” He criticised the fact that we were able to implement a CAP but “have not been able to do the same in defence, where the criterion of geo-return still prevails, and this is very negative.”
For his part, Manuel Oliveria, from Amper, also calls for such autonomy: “We have realised that we need to manufacture in Europe; the all-encompassing globalisation we experienced during the early 2000s has proved impractical.”
They agree on the opportunity presented by more generous budgets – “at least there is money now”, said Ricardo Gómez – but he points out that the problem of fragmentation affects the competitiveness of our companies and “has little solution unless there is a very strong political movement”.
Nor does the over-regulation we tend towards in Europe help. As Amper’s commercial director pointed out, whilst the United States has a very strong capacity to attract the talent emerging from Artificial Intelligence, here “we are regulating it”.
