Young people refusing to work in defense a new problem for the industry

Brussels – Fragmentation, delays, political choices, and resistance among the younger generation: the obstacles for the defense industry are many and all different. Some are more structural and long-standing, others are all new, and work needs to be done on them. This is the true degree of difficulty in developing the European defense technology industrial base, as the 2025 edition of the European Defense and Security Summit highlights. What is entirely new is the ‘resistance’ of the young recruits.

“We have the talent problem,” acknowledges José Vicente de los Mozos, president and CEO of Indra. “Many people do not want to work in defense. Convincing young people is a titanic task,” he admits, emphasizing that the issue concerns the Spanish company and is “generalized in Europe.” It is not a question of different interests or lack of desire. “Young people are very motivated to work in the technology sector, but not everyone is open to working for the defense world,” he explained to Eunews on the summit’s sidelines.

Anti-militarism and conscientious objection? According to the CEO of Indra, the problem lies in insufficient knowledge of the defense industry. “We need to explain in more detail what the defense industry is; that it is not just the military” in the strict sense, and for this, “we need to work with universities” so that young talents, once they have finished their studies, can head towards that sector, which has become increasingly strategic.

The “youth” issue intertwines with the more European dilemma of being a union of states: “In Europe, we have 17 different types of tanks, and we cannot change that quickly,” de los Mozos recalls and laments, in a clear call for defense integration.

Graduates from the HEC in Paris [photo: Jebulon/Wikimedia Commnons]

Hugues Lavandier, Head of Aerospace and Defence at McKinsey, highlighted different systems and time to catch up as long-standing problems. “There are 19 different aircraft models in Europe, only one in the United States,” he says. So, “reducing fragmentation is certainly an obstacle to overcome.” There are several obstacles, and another is innovative capacity: “We are at least five years behind the United States in terms of technology.” Here, he suggests, “We need more procurement, more networking, more research.”

The invitation is clearly for politics, which, however, struggles to think European, admits MEP François-Xavier Bellamy (EPP), former rapporteur for proposed regulation for the European Defence Industry Program known as EDIP. “Six months ago, when national governments were told to invest in European companies for the EDIP program, it was a feat,” the MEP acknowledges. Yet, he admits that it is “so anti-intuitive” to think in a non-European way in the face of the challenges facing the EU, he criticizes.