Why military aviation is embracing commercial aviation

The defense aerospace sector is experiencing its fastest growth since the 1980s, driven by a significant rise in spending across Europe.

By the end of 2025, European Union member states are projected to have spent a total of €380 billion on defense, up €40 billion from 2024.

Yet as demand for new and reliable applications accelerates in this turbulent geopolitical environment, the traditional long-cycle military development model is struggling to keep pace. This challenge has been made even more difficult by talent and skills gaps, which are continuing to impact production rates. To overcome these bottlenecks, military aviation is increasingly turning to commercial speed and innovation.

The speed gap and talent crisis

Military aviation has historically operated on long development timelines, creating a vulnerability where systems risk becoming obsolete upon arrival. At the same time, the industry faces a severe talent gap, with experienced engineers retiring faster than new talent can be trained. Commercial aviation, by contrast, evolves in much shorter cycles and attracts a broader talent pool. Adopting commercial technologies allows military programs to tap into this ecosystem, helping enhance production efficiencies and creating opportunities to transfer valuable knowledge. Military budget constraints are also questioning the sustainability of legacy development approaches. Traditional approaches involve bespoke components, extensive testing protocols and lengthy certification processes. Commercial solutions offer a pragmatic alternative that can be delivered at a fraction of the cost and time.

Commercial innovation for military solutions

Commercial aviation companies are well-equipped to deliver defense solutions at commercial speed. Adapting proven commercial products for military use is affordable and reliable, which is why it’s an avenue more and more military aviation professionals are exploring to mitigate production pressures and plug the talent gap. For example, when developing OEM-certified cockpit displays or advanced surveillance systems, commercial aviation specialists are layering military-specific requirements for ruggedness and security onto proven commercial foundations. These products enhance situational awareness and mission effectiveness across diverse military operations, whilst providing critical intelligence capabilities for defense and security initiatives.

Flight data monitoring systems used extensively in commercial aviation are also increasingly being leveraged for military applications. Advanced solutions like this can deliver immediate capability and reduce risk. Voice and flight data recorders have benefitted from continuous commercial refinement, ensuring an exceptional secure data retrieval rate. Commercial products have been enhanced to meet robust MIL-SPEC standards for precision and durability, meaning these systems can operate in the most demanding environments, whether fixed-wing, rotary or unmanned platforms. Crucially, this is all backed by comprehensive lifecycle support and 24/7 Aircraft on Ground (AOG) services, ensuring mission readiness.

Case in point: Training Systems

Training Systems exemplify a hybrid commercial-military approach. Full Flight Simulators and training devices now incorporate commercial gaming technology, virtual reality platforms and machine learning algorithms. These innovations, developed for commercial markets, are adapted for military use to create more immersive, effective training environments at significantly lower costs than traditional military-specific solutions. The result is military pilots train on systems that accurately reflect modern cockpits, with far shorter development cycles.

The path ahead

The crossover between military and commercial aviation is growing in importance. Budget constraints, alongside talent shortages and the urgent need for new applications against a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty, are only accelerating military aviation’s adoption of commercial innovations.

The defense boom is an opportunity to rethink our approach and recognize commercial innovation as a strategic advantage for military aviation. This doesn't mean abandoning military-specific requirements, but being smarter about where we invest resources and how we utilize commercial innovations that have already proven their reliability to military aviation professionals. Those who embrace commercial speed will deliver better capabilities and meet critical development targets, faster and more affordably.