Microwaves, GPS, drones, duct tape, the PC. That’s just a short list of household goods that trace their origin to military research labs.

Axar.az reports, citing Politico, their dual-use functionality is known as “military-civil fusion” in the parlance of the defense sector.

Now, with Europe about to unleash a flood of money into its defense sector, reversing decades of underinvestment, hopes are high that the continent’s dismal productivity record could tap into similar military ingenuity to turn things around.

Projects underway in Europe are already beginning to rival those of the United States in terms of ambition: from continental antimissile defenses to low Earth orbit satellite constellations that could provide alternatives to an increasingly unreliable Elon Musk’s Starlink.

The hope is that eventually all the investment drives technological innovation that spills over into the civilian economy, boosting productivity and paying for itself.

But is that realistic, or just wishful thinking? There’s no doubt that in the short term, economic strain is unavoidable, and will require cuts elsewhere.

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