ctg. morning brief, 31 Oct 2026
On 31 Oct 2026, Airbus Defence and Space booked €11.5bn of orders in the first nine months of 2026, up from €6.8bn a year earlier, per Airbus 9m results (28 Oct). EBIT Adjusted at the division rose to €672m from €420m.
Why it matters: That is a 70% jump in defence order intake from the company Germany is now sending to talk to BAE about GCAP. Revenue only grew 5% to €9.3bn, so the orders are running far ahead of what the factories ship. Same story as Schakal yesterday: demand is solved, output is the job. Money lead.
Source: https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-10-airbus-reports-nine-month-9m-2026-results
The Commission opened a second SAFE call worth €21.3bn, open to all member states, and told them to put joint procurement with Ukraine into their plans (29 Oct). Priorities: air and missile defence, drones and counter-drone, ammunition and missiles.
Why it matters: This is the leftover money from the €150bn loan pot after some countries asked for less than allocated, the same pile Poland went after this week. 16 of 19 participating states have signed loan agreements and almost €13.5bn has been paid out to 11. SAFE is also opening doors outside the EU: Canada's Galvion just won a Latvian helmet framework worth up to €27.8m under it. Edition candidate: who actually builds what SAFE buys.
Source: https://defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu/commission-invites-member-states-use-eur213-billion-under-safe-boost-defence-readiness-and-support-2026-10-29_en
KDDI's Telehouse paid more than £220m for an East India Dock site in London with 65 MVA of power secured (29 Oct). DC Market Insights works that out at about £3.4m per MVA.
Why it matters: In Britain you now pay for the grid connection, not the building. Think tank Science Works says UK developers plan 5.7GW of new data centre capacity for 2026 to 2030, which would need delivery at seven times the recent rate, and only 13% of it was under construction in September. DC Market Insights counts 2.8GW proposed in the UK and Spain in ten days, with about 3% holding a grid date before 2030.
Source: https://www.dcmarketinsights.com/news/emea-saw-2-8-gw-of-new-data-centre-plans-in-a-week-3-with-grid-power-by-2029-israels-cap-is-next
ESA signed a NAVISP contract with Norway's Rift Dynamics, maker of the Wåsp FPV+ drone, to keep cheap expendable drones navigating for 10 minutes under GNSS jamming or spoofing, with Arctic trials planned (signed 27 Oct). Value, schedule and method were not disclosed.
Why it matters: Jamming resilience is moving from exquisite platforms to throwaway ones, and Norway, which hosts Jammertest, has the ranges to prove it. Ten minutes is a target, not a result yet. Worth watching if it lands in a drone Europe actually buys in volume.
Source: https://uasfeed.com/article/esa-rift-dynamics-drones-10-minutes-without-gps-october-2026