The Defence Information Market
Structural statistics on who produces defence information, where it originates, and how it is distributed. Every figure below is derived from the indexed dataset at build time, so it cannot drift out of sync with the directory it describes.
Data as of October 2026 • 389 sources • 31 countries
Key findings
- —The index tracks 389 defence information sources across 31 countries.
- —45.2% of indexed sources cover European jurisdictions.
- —27 entries (6.9%) are state bodies or state agencies with statutory procurement mandates.
- —35% of entries carry verified-desk status following editorial review.
- —The median indexed organisation was founded in 1994, with the oldest dating to 1631.
- —Open access dominates: 279 of 389 entries require no subscription.
Structure of the index
By sector
| News & Specialized Press | 104 | 26.7% | |
| Listed Company Investor Relations | 98 | 25.2% | |
| Think Tanks & Strategy | 54 | 13.9% | |
| Prime OEMs & Industrial News | 43 | 11.1% | |
| State Procurement & Ministries | 24 | 6.2% | |
| OSINT & Tactical Conflict Radar | 22 | 5.7% | |
| Substack & Newsletters | 21 | 5.4% | |
| Financial & Equity Research | 13 | 3.3% | |
| Military Commentary & Journals | 10 | 2.6% | |
| Total indexed | 389 | 100% |
By jurisdiction
| United States & Canada | 123 | 31.6% | |
| Global / International | 90 | 23.1% | |
| Pan-European / EU | 48 | 12.3% | |
| United Kingdom | 39 | 10% | |
| Germany (DACH) | 31 | 8% | |
| Nordics & Baltics | 21 | 5.4% | |
| Southern Europe (IT/ES) | 19 | 4.9% | |
| France | 18 | 4.6% | |
| Total indexed | 389 | 100% |
By institutional tier
| Specialized Desk | 236 | 60.7% | |
| Benchmark | 97 | 24.9% | |
| Institutional Advisory | 31 | 8% | |
| State Agency | 25 | 6.4% | |
| Total indexed | 389 | 100% |
By access model
| Free Open Access | 279 | 71.7% | |
| Official Sovereign / Gov | 67 | 17.2% | |
| Freemium | 28 | 7.2% | |
| Institutional / Subscription | 15 | 3.9% | |
| Total indexed | 389 | 100% |
When these organisations were founded
The distribution is heavily weighted to recent decades: 167 of the 389 indexed organisations were founded since 2000, against 1 in the 1600s. That skew reflects the expansion of independent defence analysis as a distinct field rather than a shift among established institutions.
Where coverage is thinnest
Least-covered sectors
Least-covered jurisdictions
Method and citation
Counts are exhaustive over the indexed dataset. Every entry is reviewed against the authority scoring methodology, which weights sovereign mandate (25%), primary-source forensic rigour (25%), financial depth (20%), technical domain specialisation (15%) and open-data transparency (15%).
Sector and jurisdiction assignments are exclusive: an entry appears under one primary sector and one primary jurisdiction, so the shares sum to 100%. Multi-market desks are assigned to their principal operating jurisdiction, which understates genuinely pan-European coverage rather than overstating it.
Cite as: defense.markets, “The Defence Information Market”, October 2026. Figures recomputed at build time from the live index.