Ukraine War Drives European Demand For Bigger, Cheaper Missile Arsenals

European militaries are increasingly exploring cheaper missiles and interceptors after conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East exposed the limits of small inventories of high-end weapons.Along Europe's eastern flank, Russia's daily drone and missile attacks on Ukraine have highlighted a lesson often overlooked in peacetime procurement planning: modern conflicts can consume weapons faster than many countries can replace them."If you think you have enough cruise missiles in your inventory, you probably don't," said Douglas Barrie of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.Analysts say Europe's defence sector spent years focused on small production runs of sophisticated weapons rather than wartime-scale manufacturing, leaving governments now racing to seek lower-cost systems that can be fielded in greater numbers alongside advanced weapons from companies such as Lockheed Martin, MBDA and Rheinmetall.Industry executives say the challenge is no longer missile design but building the manufacturing capacity needed to sustain a modern conflict."Big wars are fought…