{"id":439020,"date":"2025-10-31T10:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T09:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/10\/31\/propellenti-ed-esplosivi-le-prossime-sfide-per-lue-della-difesa-a-corto-di-risorse-e-forniture\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T11:41:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T10:41:53","slug":"propellants-and-explosives-the-next-challenges-for-an-eu-defence-sector-short-of-resources-and-supplies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/10\/31\/propellants-and-explosives-the-next-challenges-for-an-eu-defence-sector-short-of-resources-and-supplies\/","title":{"rendered":"Propellants and explosives: the next challenges for an EU defence sector short of resources and supplies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels -Europe is already lagging in defense and risks falling further behind, as new challenges are set to arise on top of the existing ones, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.europarl.europa.eu\/thinktank\/en\/document\/EPRS_ATA(2025)779178\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">analysis<\/a> compiled by the European Parliament&#8217;s Think Tank warns, summing up a situation that is already a puzzle for the EU. Meanwhile, it points out that i<strong>ndustrial capacity is not defined solely by production facilities but &#8220;depends equally on skilled labour, specialised suppliers and access to critical raw materials,&#8221;\u200b<\/strong> all of which the European Union lacks.<span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">\u200b<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Due in part to political choices made after the Second World War, everyone in Europe has de facto abandoned heavy industry for a new type of economy, of peace. The result has been a shortage of skilled and specialised labour as well as weak supply chains. Additionally, there is the issue that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/06\/10\/young-people-refusing-to-work-in-defense-a-new-problem-for-the-industry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">young people have&nbsp;little interest in a career in defence<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">The turnaround the European Commission has imposed with its defence agenda may be of little use, the experts in the European Parliament warn. As they explain, <strong>actual output may lag behind nominal capacity <\/strong>because many firms had expansion plans in place before EU funding, and supply chains remain strained. Speaking of supplies, &#8220;<strong>shortages in components such as propellants, explosives, and miniature jet engines represent the next bottlenecks, highlighting the need for further targeted public investment.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">For the European Union, in essence, &#8220;constraints persist&#8221; for the development of the defence sector. In this sense, &#8220;<strong>it is worrying that the Commissioner for Defence [Andrius] <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/10\/14\/kubilius-on-defense-the-eu-is-not-ready-production-capacity-is-at-50-percent\/\">Kubilius notes that the EU is not ready,<\/a><\/strong>&#8221; and not because there are delays resulting from past choices, but because there is no desire to reverse the course. For the Think Tank, &#8220;there is also considerable pushback against Europe&#8217;s rearmament plans,&#8221;&nbsp;which is hindering efforts to move beyond the situation it wants to leave behind.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">\u200b<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The same applies to miniature jet engines, an issue the European Parliament underscores in an analysis of the defence sector&#8217;s vulnerabilities, where new constraints are emerging on top of old ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":269550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30809],"tags":[31257,29924,32499,25755,25744,32500,31186],"class_list":["post-439020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defence-security","tag-andrius-kubilius-en","tag-approvvigionamento","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-industry-en","tag-lavoratori-qualificati","tag-workforce-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439020"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":439023,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439020\/revisions\/439023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}