By mid to late 2023, Ukrainian units repurposed low-cost agricultural drones to launch 15 kg of explosives against Russian armor. Within days, equipment built for crop analysis became an improvised artillery system. It’s not a rare example – the fast deployment of dual-use technologies in response to current challenges is far from uncommon. The stakes are higher than ever, as their use becomes increasingly critical.

Europe’s geopolitical environment – marked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific (in which European countries are indirectly involved) – has driven the commercialization of dual-use technologies. For example, EU member states’ authorized dual-use exports were €57.3 billion in 2022, up from €38.5 billion in 2021 – a roughly 49% year-on-year jump.

Crucially, these market shifts run alongside with deep supply-chain realignments that further shrink the interval between prototype demonstration and operational deployment. By improving the integration of R&D, manufacturing, logistics, and digital systems, Europe can shorten time-to-deployment, enabling front-line testing and fielding cycles in weeks or months rather than years under traditional procurement.

What happens then when technologies, initially developed to boost European agriculture are adapted for military use; would they really be efficient? What does history teach us about today’s efforts to integrate R&D, manufacturing, logistics, and digital systems for rapid defense deployment? Over the past century, Europe has often had the “dilemma” to balance the everyday uses of technology with its potential military impact.

Historical growth of dual-use tech in Europe

During World War I, the pioneering Haber–Bosch process, developed by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, was originally adopted to produce ammonia for fertilizers but it also became indispensable for munitions, supplying Germany with explosively-active nitrates despite naval blockades. That very duality led to some of the earliest calls for controls on dual-use chemical compounds. After World War II, Western allies established CoCom (1949) to restrict technology transfers to the Soviet bloc. CoCom’s export controls covered radar components, semiconductors and nuclear technology.

Building on these wartime-era controls, the European Community formalized its own regulatory mechanisms. In 1994, the European Community introduced Council Regulation 3381/94, requiring authorizations for the export of sensitive dual-use goods. Just two years later, the Wassenaar Arrangement brought over 40 countries together to coordinate controls on arms and emerging technologies.