Europe is experiencing a decisive moment at the intersection of defense, economy and innovation. The geopolitical context and the European Union’s new strategic priorities place Defense at the center of the technological and economic agenda.
With the arrival of the NRP D. João II, a multifunctional ship and floating laboratory, it is necessary to reflect on how to value military resources and infrastructures to boost innovation, economic development and national technological sovereignty, reinforcing its strategic autonomy and inserting the country into European value chains.
For decades, military spending was seen as a security cost. Today, it is understood that military resources and infrastructures are technological platforms at the service of the economy and competitiveness, as demonstrated by countries that combine Defense, Academia and industry, transforming it into an engine of progress.
The Law of Martec (1) reveals the gap between technological evolution and the organizational capacity to absorb it. In Defense, this phenomenon tends to create a gap increasingly critical between the emergence of new capabilities – such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) or autonomous systems – and their institutional integration. Reducing it requires infrastructures and mechanisms that link technological experimentation to decision-making and acquisition, making military assets testing and co-creation platforms that accelerate the operational application of innovation.
In Portugal, the potential is evident. The NRP D. João II will be an ecosystem for technological experimentation and a bridge between the Armed Forces, research and the Defense Technological and Industrial Base (BTID), where sensors, communications, autonomous vehicles and AI will be tested and validated.
To realize this potential, below are some contributions so that the country can structure a national approach, according to six lines of action:
1. Institutionalize dual-use Innovation Programs
Create specific financing lines for dual-use projects, promoting consortia between Defense, science and industry to accelerate the maturation of critical technologies with export potential. In projects supported by the European Union, co-finance initiatives with a declared interest for and for Defense, especially when led by national industry.
2. Value military resources as platforms for experimentation
Allow, in a protocolized and safe way, technological experimentation in military assets – ships, aircraft and vehicles – transforming them into operational test beds accessible to startupsR&D centers and companies undergoing technological development.
3. Integrate Defense into the National Smart Specialization Strategy
Recognize military infrastructures – such as naval bases, military fields or air bases, and testing and experimentation zones, such as the Navy’s Operational Experimentation Center (CEOM), the Army’s Technological Experimentation and Modernization Center and the Infante D. Henrique Technological Free Zone (ZLT) – as regional innovation assets, integrating them into regional development plans for intelligent specialization, and promoting new value chains and the establishment of cutting-edge technological industries in Portugal.
4. Reassess the governance of innovation and technology transfer in Defense
Make BTID more dynamic and collaborative, given the accelerated pace of global innovation, linking the national ecosystem of technological accelerators to military experimentation and validation. To ensure strategic coherence and inter-institutional coordination, it is considered appropriate to study the possibility and possible benefits of establishing a Defense Innovation Coordination Unit (UCID), based at the Ministry of National Defense (MDN), that aligns innovation policies, programs and infrastructures between idD Portugal Defense, the MDN Directorates and the Armed Forces, promoting not only technological transfer, dual use, protection and valorization of Defense intellectual property, but also inter-ministerial coordination.
5. Promote regular technological co-creation platforms
Promote events like REPMUS (2)which should become models of continuous platforms for dialogue and co-creation between Defense, Academia and Industry. These initiatives result in concrete and thematic challenges for collaborative development with Defense.
6. Consider adapting legal and contractual instruments
Adapt public contracting and acquisition mechanisms to (without prejudice to transparency and the necessary public scrutiny) allow agile innovation cycles, supporting the national BTID with contracts that promote prototyping, risk sharing and phased development of technologies.
An agile and technologically competitive Defense model will reduce the difference identified by the Martec Law and reinforce Portugal’s role in Europe.
Transforming military assets into engines of innovation and growth requires strategic vision, political continuity and a culture of intersectoral collaboration. The Portuguese Navy has taken decisive steps with projects such as REPMUS, CEOM and now with NRP D. João II. It now remains to evaluate and transform these examples into structured public policy, with scale and impact.
The defense economy is not a cost, it is an investment in sovereignty, industrialization, talent and knowledge. Ships, aircraft and military vehicles are infrastructures of technological and economic progress, making Defense a lever of national strategic autonomy.
In this new paradigm, military resources and infrastructures are no longer just consumers of resources and become catalysts for competitiveness, knowledge and national cohesion, promoting Defense as a lever for strategic autonomy and national economic transformation. To realize this vision, Portugal must not just consume defense technology – it must produce it, export it and transform it into sovereignty.
(1) Technology evolves exponentially, while organizations change much more slowly. Over time, the difference between these two curves increases, creating a strategic gap between what the technology allows you to do and what the organization is capable of doing.
(2) Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping with Maritime Unmanned Systems, international experimentation and technological development event, promoted by the Portuguese Navy, using the physical space in Troia of CEOM and ZLT.
Commander, Chief of the Armada General Staff Innovation Division