Top Naval Primes in Europe 2026

Naval Group is France's naval defence shipbuilder, heir to the royal arsenals founded in 1631 and formerly known as DCN and DCNS before adopting its current name in 2017. The French state holds about 62 percent of the company and Thales 35 percent. It designs and builds nuclear and conventionally powered submarines, frigates, aircraft carriers and naval combat systems, and employed 15,261 people across 17 countries in 2024.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace produces NASAMS air defence, NSM/JSM missiles, remote weapon stations and space systems.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

RENK was founded in Augsburg in 1873 by Johann Julius Renk and is a major manufacturer of transmissions for tracked armoured vehicles, marine propulsion gear units and military vehicle suspension systems. Its gearboxes equip main battle tanks including the Leopard 2 as well as frigates and icebreakers. RENK returned to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in February 2024 and reported revenue of about 1.1 billion euros for 2024 with around 3,400 employees.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Babcock International provides through-life support for naval fleets, submarines and land systems, plus training and mission support.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

British propulsion group founded in 1906 whose defence division supplies engines for combat, transport and patrol aircraft, including the EJ200 for Eurofighter Typhoon as a Eurojet partner, the AE 2100 and the F130 for the US B-52 fleet. Its Rolls-Royce Submarines business in Derby designs and builds the nuclear reactor plants for all Royal Navy submarines and will power the SSN-AUKUS boats. In 2025 the group booked over 1.5 billion pounds of defence aftermarket contracts with the UK MoD and US DoD; the wider group employs around 50,000 people.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Saab develops the Gripen fighter, GlobalEye surveillance aircraft, submarines and ground combat weapons for Sweden and export customers.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Frequentis, founded in Vienna in 1947 and listed in Vienna and Frankfurt since 2019, supplies communication and information systems for safety-critical control centres. It is the global market leader in voice communication systems for air traffic control, with military customers including the German Bundeswehr and the US Department of Defense. Military air traffic control accounted for around 20 percent of group revenues in 2024, alongside air defence and tactical network systems. The group employs around 2,600 full-time equivalents and reported revenues of EUR 580.1 million in 2025.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Remontowa Holding is a privately held Gdansk shipbuilding and ship repair group of 26 companies whose core Remontowa yard was established in 1952 and employs close to 2,000 people. Its Remontowa Shipbuilding yard leads the consortium building the Polish Navy's six Kormoran II class mine countermeasure vessels and has delivered more than 400 military ships in its history. The group also repairs and converts naval and commercial vessels at a yard ranked among the top three ship repair facilities in Europe.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Fincantieri is Italy's state-controlled shipbuilding group, majority owned by CDP Equity and headquartered in Trieste. Its naval division builds FREMM frigates, PPA patrol vessels, U212NFS submarines and the carrier Cavour for the Italian Navy, and its US yard Fincantieri Marinette Marine is completing the first two Constellation class frigates after the US Navy curtailed the programme in 2026. The group employs more than 24,000 people and reported revenue of 9.2 billion euros in 2025; its WASS Submarine Systems unit supplies torpedoes and sonars.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

TechnicAtome designs, builds and supports the compact nuclear reactors that propel the French Navy's submarines and the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier. Created in 1972 from the CEA's reactor construction department and known as Areva TA from 2006 to 2017, it is controlled by the French state, which holds 50.32 percent through the Agence des participations de l'Etat, alongside Naval Group, the CEA and EDF. Its registered office is at Villiers-le-Bacle near Paris-Saclay, and its roughly 2,200 employees work on reactors for France's future submarines and next aircraft carrier.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Systematic is a privately owned software company founded in Aarhus in 1985 by Michael Holm and Allan Schytt, with business areas spanning defence, healthcare, and national security. Its SitaWare command and control suite covers headquarters, frontline, and maritime variants and is in service with more than 50 countries. In 2024 NATO's NCI Agency selected SitaWare Headquarters as the alliance's future land C2 capability under project DEMETER. The company employs more than 1,200 people across offices in Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

BAE Systems builds combat aircraft, warships, armoured vehicles, munitions and electronic systems for the UK and allies.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

State-owned naval shipbuilder wholly owned by the Spanish industrial holding SEPI, created in 2005 from the military yards of the IZAR group. It builds the F-110 frigates and S-80 Plus submarines for the Spanish Navy and has delivered destroyers and amphibious assault ships to Australia, corvettes to Saudi Arabia and patrol vessels to further export customers. Its Navantia Sistemas division develops naval combat and control systems. The group employed around 5,600 people in 2024 across yards and centres in Ferrol, the Bay of Cadiz, Cartagena and Madrid.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

TKMS, formerly thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, was formed in January 2005 when thyssenkrupp consolidated HDW in Kiel with Blohm+Voss and Nordseewerke. The group builds conventional submarines and naval surface vessels through divisions for HDW-brand submarines, MEKO surface vessels and the sensor systems house ATLAS ELEKTRONIK. It was spun off and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on 20 October 2025, with thyssenkrupp retaining a 51 percent stake, and reported an order backlog of about 20.6 billion euros as of March 2026.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Defence technology group listed on AIM in March 2006 and headquartered in Reading. Its seven operating businesses, Chess, EID, ELAC SONAR, EM Solutions, MASS, MCL and SEA, supply electronic warfare operational support, naval sonar, surveillance and fire-control trackers, satellite terminals and military communications to UK, German, Portuguese and international defence customers. The group employs more than 1,500 core staff across the UK, Germany, Portugal and Australia.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Ukraine's national defence industrial group, established in December 2010 as the state concern Ukroboronprom and reorganised into JSC Ukrainian Defense Industry in June 2023. It unites 134 enterprises, including Antonov (aircraft), the Kyiv design bureau Luch (high-precision armament), the Malyshev tank factory in Kharkiv and Zorya-Mashproekt (naval gas turbines in Mykolaiv). The group reports around 54,000 employees and is the largest arms manufacturer in Ukraine, the backbone of state armament production.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ) is the Polish state-owned holding established in 2013 to consolidate the national defence industry, grouping over 50 companies including Huta Stalowa Wola, Mesko, PIT-RADWAR and PGZ Stocznia Wojenna. Its plants produce the Krab self-propelled howitzer, the Borsuk infantry fighting vehicle, man-portable air defence missiles, radars, ammunition and naval vessels. SIPRI ranked PGZ 51st among the world's largest arms producers by 2024 revenue, and the group employs around 20,000 people.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Naviris is the joint venture between Fincantieri and Naval Group coordinating Franco-Italian naval programmes such as the Horizon frigate upgrade.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Exail was created in 2022 by combining navigation specialist iXblue and robotics house ECA Group under the listed parent Exail Technologies, and has its registered head office in Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris. It supplies uncrewed surface and underwater vehicles, integrated mine countermeasures drone systems and fibre-optic inertial navigation to naval and industrial customers in more than 80 countries. The group employs more than 2,000 people across some 30 sites.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)

Damen Naval is the naval shipbuilding division of the Damen Shipyards Group, tracing its origins to the Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde yard founded in Vlissingen in 1875 and part of the group since 2000. Current programmes include the F126 frigates for the German Navy, the Anti-Submarine Warfare Frigates for the Netherlands and Belgium, and the combat support ship Den Helder for the Royal Netherlands Navy. As a naval OEM it has delivered more than 420 vessels and employs over 500 people, operating yards and specialist engineering companies in the Netherlands and Romania.

Sources: FieldFaster curated dataset (public sources)