AeronauticsDefence, Security & Naval
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The defence, security, and naval industries play vital roles in ensuring the safety, protection, and stability of nations around the world.
These industries encompass a wide range of activities, technologies, and organizations dedicated to maintaining national defence capabilities and safeguarding territorial waters.
These industries often collaborate closely with governments and defence agencies to ensure preparedness, enhance capabilities, and adapt to evolving security challenges in an ever-changing geopolitical landscape.
An uncertain geopolitical context
The global geopolitical context is currently in a very bad state. After two decades of counterterrorism, military powers are preparing for the return of inter-state ‘high intensity conflict’. Benefiting from unprecedented budgetary efforts, the defence industry must accelerate the development of equipment programs (air combat, naval, space and cyber, etc.) adapted to this new context. At the same time, the sector must acquire new skills (data, robotization, etc.) to anticipate technological breakthroughs.
From airspace to digital space: the new challenges of homeland security
The collapse of air traffic and national lockdowns have reduced internal security activities in most countries. But at the same time, the accelerating shift to remote working has exposed many organizations to cyber-attacks. The giants of the sector are now positioning themselves in the key areas of security in the digital space, foremost among which are the Cloud and digital identity. This investment is accompanied by numerous initiatives to overcome the shortage of IT and cybersecurity skills: partnerships with software firms, dedicated training programs, etc.
ALTEN, your partner for Defence & Security projects
The ALTEN Group supports the digital transformation of its clients by working on the dimension of technological information. ALTEN works in Defence Engineering for the development of aircraft, combat vehicles, and advanced embedded systems. ALTEN also participates in the design of ships and submarines as part of its expertise in naval defence systems. ALTEN supports its clients and governments on the securing identities’ data, biometrics & connectivity solutions.
ALTEN in the Defence, Naval & Security industries
319 M€
2024 turnover
20+
countries
What are the market trends in the Defence, Naval & Security Industries?
Whether they are “spy”, “carrier” or combat, drones and the multitude of applications they offer are booming. Today, drones are fully integrated into military or surveillance operations. The latest technological advances enable them to operate in missions such as air combat, naval mine action, strategic intelligence and ground troop evacuation.
The military UAV market is estimated at $28 billion in R&D and $84 billion in equipment purchases over the next decade. More than 80,000 military drones will be in service in the next 10 years, according to IHS Jane’s.
Challenges:
- Staying at the forefront of innovation in a highly competitive market (> 20 producing countries)
- Ensuring the control and security of drones, which are increasingly autonomous
- Identifying new applications
The global geopolitical situation encourages the proliferation of export contracts, which are often accompanied by offsets with client countries. Industrialists are seeking to strengthen transnational synergies in order to pool R&D efforts for the development of increasingly sophisticated weapons systems.
European manufacturers are collaborating on the operational development of two strategic projects by 2030-2040: the future European battle tank (EMBT) and the future European fighter aircraft (FCAS).
Challenges:
- Supporting industrial transfers in the client country
- Remaining agile in an international cooperation project
- Ensure support over the entire product life cycle (modifications, logistical support, maintenance in operational condition, etc.)
In both maritime transport and military marine, the shipbuilding industry sector is strengthening the development of innovative solutions (e.g. artificial intelligence, cyber security, etc.) and digital manufacturing solutions (e.g. Industry 4.0, augmented reality, etc.). The time to market (design and construction) of a ship will be considerably reduced. The ship of tomorrow will be more interconnected and much more automated, while offering greater operational capabilities. It will also have a better availability rate thanks to predictive maintenance, 3D printing of spare parts on board, and faster modernization operations. Military ships will offer better self-protection, capabilities & improve the long-distance shooting thanks to new generation sensors & armament.
Challenges:
- Integrating industry 4.0 to find a new way to organize the means of production (collaborative PLM software platform, automation, monitoring interface, AR/VR…)
- Master digital skills (Big Data, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, IoT network…)
- Experimenting with disruptive solutions and new services (e.g. autonomous ship, directed-energy weapon)
Digital transformation, connectivity of objects and associated services, exponential growth of data, and flow and storage management make cybersecurity a major challenge. States, companies and organizations, infrastructures (transport, energy, banking, communications…), all are exposed to cyber-attacks. The Defense & Security industries are very concerned by these challenges and are heavily investing in this expertise.
The size of the civil and military Cybersecurity market has increased from $3.5 billion per year in 2004 to $170 billion in 2023. It is expected to grow up to $420 billion in 2030.
Challenges:
- Securing networks and data
- Recruiting and train Cybersecurity skills
- Being in compliance with regulatory requirements
The rise of biometric technologies (fingerprints, facial-iris recognition, voice…) allows us today to use our identity for multiple applications. Whether it is banking, transportation, medical care, or using our smartphone, identification must be reliable, secure and personal.
The biometrics market was estimated at $30 billion in 2022. It is expected to reach $77 billion in 2029.
Challenges:
- Improving the reliability of the different biometric technologies
- Reconciling safety and comfort of use
- Securing the data collected
ALTEN Value Proposition
Our expertise & our offers
Smarter engineering to speed up product innovation
System Engineering covers the full product lifecycle: upstream (needs analysis, requirements definition, system architecture) and downstream (integration, verification, validation, qualification – IVVQ – and certification). This end-to-end approach ensures full traceability, robust performance, and compliance with regulations.
Engineering excellence from legacy turbines to next-gen aero-engines
Aerospace and Defense propulsion system manufacturers face a dual challenge:
- Ensuring the performance and availability of legacy engines that drive aftermarket revenues.
- Accelerating innovation toward greener engines, such as electric and hydrogen propulsion, to meet net-zero targets.
Mechanical mastery powering aerospace innovation
The aeronautics, space and defense sectors are undergoing a major transformation, driven by increasing system complexity, ambitious sustainability targets, and rapid digitalization.
Empowering systems with safe and high-performance code
Aerospace and Defense programs increasingly rely on embedded software to deliver performance, safety, and competitiveness. Yet, software complexity is growing exponentially — systems must process more data, respond in real time, integrate with hardware, and comply with the strictest certification and cybersecurity standards.
Smarter embedded systems for innovation and reliability
In Aerospace & Defense, electronics are evolving at high speed — driven by electrification, embedded intelligence, and digital continuity. To stay ahead, OEMs and suppliers must deliver increasingly complex, connected systems while meeting ever-stricter safety, qualification, and cybersecurity requirements.
Agile and sustainable manufacturing for a new industrial era
The aerospace and defense industry is facing a decisive industrial shift, driven by production acceleration, digital transformation, and environmental transition.
Data-driven strategies to secure and streamline aerospace production
Aerospace and defense players navigate unprecedented production ramp-ups while facing disrupted supply chains, geopolitical uncertainty, and rising sustainability demands. Tier-1 and Tier-N suppliers encounter bottlenecks, part shortages, and fragmented systems, all threatening delivery performance and program timelines.
Ensuring system integrity with sovereign and secure-by-design solutions
In an era of growing geopolitical tension, digital interdependence, and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, sovereignty and cybersecurity have become strategic imperatives for aerospace, defense, and critical infrastructure stakeholders.
Mastering complexity to deliver impactful results
Aerospace and defense programs are growing in complexity. Accelerated time-to-market, on-time delivery, and competitiveness require managing extended value chains and evolving risks.
Leading the green shift throughout the product lifecycle
ALTEN combines 17 years of sustainability experience in aerospace & high‑tech industries with a 500‑strong pool of environment, health & safety (EHS) consultants to deliver end‑to‑end green transformation. Our offer helps clients comply with evolving regulations (REACH, CSRD, Fit‑for‑55), reduce their environmental footprint, and embed a sustainability‑first culture.
Unlocking the full value of aircraft operations through data-driven services
In today’s aerospace landscape, Customer Services play a critical role in ensuring fleet availability, regulatory compliance, and operational performance. As digital transformation accelerates, industry players are turning to predictive maintenance, advanced analytics and secure platforms to increase responsiveness and reduce downtime.
We support you in taking advantage of AI in Engineering and IT Services
With AI experts and a global community of AI-augmented engineers, ALTEN helps clients adopt AI responsibly and efficiently, combining innovation, sustainability and operational excellence. Our approach ensures optimized performance, seamless integration and secure deployment, delivering high-impact, AI-driven solutions tailored to engineering and IT challenges.
ALTEN’s functional sectors
Land defence
Air defence
Naval defence
Digital security
Our Success Stories
With increasing digitalization of combat platforms to ensure better network centric warfare capability, operators also need better Human-Machine interface (HMI) to deal with increasing information.
ALTEN provides its expertise in HMI design & embedded software development for many defence electronic equipment providers on different products (Infantry tactical tablet computer, Optronic equipment, SatCom, UAV…)
Hight maintenance cost and low availability rate of cold war design armored vehicles drive land forces to renew their fleet. The target: a better versatility, projection capacity & control of ownership costs.
To respond to these issues, ALTEN engineers contribute to the French next generation armored platform programs in mechanical engineering (vehicle architecture…) & vehicle testing.
To protect 10 million sq km of European airspace against a range of threats, NATO needs a coordinated air defense system from member nations.
ALTEN, with its ability to manage transnational engineering projects, supports an international company specializing in C4ISR system to deploy its solution in different European countries. Our engineers ensure system integration, system administrator and technical support activities.
Moving to an optimized financial model, armed forces are increasing the scale of outsourced military services off battlefield.
A global industrial pioneer in defense solutions trusted us with the highly demanding military training program & to succeed, ALTEN deploys a fully integrated Computer-Based training solution, going from personal trainers to e-learning platforms both for ground crew (engineering & maintenance staff) to flight crew (pilots & systems operators).
With extensive use of internet-Protocol (IP) enabled banking, health care, entertainment, or even smart energy & transportation systems, cybersecurity vulnerabilities & features have become a high priority for our customers.
ALTEN, with its JV ALTEN SIR GSS, supports different customers (government security agency, banks, industrial…) in SCADA vulnerabilities audits, ISO27001 consulting services, SOC implementation, access control, data encryption, pen test…
OUR CLIENTS
Defence & Naval
Airbus Group, Leonardo, Dassault Aviation, Naval Group, Saab, Nexter, General Dynamics…Safran Group, Thales Group, MBDA, Honeywell, Rheinmetall…
Security
Airbus D&S, Safran Group, Thales DIS, IDEMIA, Orange Groupe…
