Three European governments have agreed to jointly buy anti-tank missiles through the EU's SAFE procurement scheme, NATO has told its agencies to speed up buying counter-drone systems, and Slovenia says it is weighing whether to fold its next order for Germany's MARS 3 rocket launchers into Berlin's own contract, according to Defence24, ADS Advance and Мілітарний.

The legal path just got shorter, too. An EU directive simplifies the rules for moving weapons and components between member states, easing licensing that has long made it harder to sell defense goods across borders than within one country, according to Crowell & Moring's analysis. Hypothesis: that loosened paperwork and pooled orders are outpacing what Europe's defense factories can deliver, since production lines expand only after a contract is signed — the build-first-sell-later caution Business Standard calls the industry's default posture. Supporting this: the Slovenia-Germany tie-up is, by Мілітарний's account, only reportedly under consideration, not a signed order. Against it: firms are already moving on their own — Airbus is delivering IRIS high-resolution Earth-observation satellites to the French military, per Defensehere, and the US drone-maker PteroDynamics is pitching European partners at the Transatlantic Defense Industry Access Forum, according to sUAS News.

Watch whether the Slovenia-Germany launcher pool and the three-country missile buy convert into signed deliveries with dates attached, and whether NATO's "accelerated" counter-drone procurement produces fielded systems before the next drone incursion makes the acceleration look slow.