You delivered. On time, to specification, with a satisfied customer. This feedback is likely the most powerful business asset your company possesses, and it’s sitting unused in a project-closure report that only three people have read. Meanwhile, 73% of executives looking to break into the defense sector say they’re unable to get noticed by contracting authorities, and the Richelieu Committee Observatory shows that even companies already in the industry suffer from a chronic lack of visibility. On September 29, in Bouguenais, some of your competitors will arrive at the DGA with a well-crafted operational narrative. The others will arrive with a brochure. This article provides you with the steps to switch sides without ever violating a confidentiality clause.
At BITD, confidentiality is a way of life rather than a legal requirement. The default response boils down to a simple equation: sensitive subject, therefore total silence.
This equation is incorrect. It confuses two distinct things:operational secrecy, which protects a capability, a client, or a sum of money, anda lack of communication, which primarily protects your competitor.
Take a look at what you actually can’t disclose: the end customer’s name, the contract amount, the program name, the system’s performance metrics, and the deployment location. Now look at what remains: a deadline met under pressure, a successful ramp-up, qualification achieved on the first attempt, adaptation to adverse conditions, and maintenance operations ensured at 3,000 kilometers.What remains is exactly what the buyer wants to know.
A government buyer or prime contractor doesn’t evaluate you based on your product catalog. They evaluate your ability to avoid causing them problems. That’s the logic we detail in our analysis ofan SME’s visibility in the defense sector, despite the secrecy surrounding its DGA proof-of-concepts.
The main point of this article is therefore simple:80% of a RETEX can be utilized by removing the 20% that is actually classified.But a protocol is still needed. We’ll get to that.
The figure comes from Bpifrance Le Lab. 73% of executives outside the defense sector report having difficulty getting noticed by contracting authorities: this is the primary obstacle, far ahead of the complexity of the bidding process (44%) and difficulties in establishing strategic partnerships (34%).
Take a close look at the hierarchy. Neither funding, nor certification, nor the length of the cycles ranks at the top. The length of the R&D and production cycle is cited by only 13% of companies seeking to enter the market, and the initial investment by 16%.
In other words: Leaders know how to get things done. They don't know how to draw attention to themselves.
The study then gives the floor to those involved, and the verbatim account is chilling: one company explains that it has been unable to find a point of contact to present its product, even though its sales representative has been trying to connect with clients—particularly through trade shows—for at least eighteen months.
Eighteen months of sales outreach with no point of entry. This isn’t a sales issue. It’s a visibility issue: when you knock on the door, the buyer has no record of you. Not a single article, not a single post, not a single mention in the trade press, not a single reference in a trade show report. We’ve documented this dynamic in our analysis ofwhy SMEs in the BITD sector lose contracts due to a lack of visibility.
One might think that this problem disappears once a company enters the sector. The Richelieu Committee’s 2026 Defense Observatory—the first edition of a survey of 287 startups, SMEs, and mid-sized companies, most of which are dual-purpose—proves otherwise. And it proves it figure by figure.
45.92% of respondents rate their relationship with the DGA as “good” or “very good.” Frankly negative opinions are few and far between, totaling 6.12%. The issue, therefore, is not the quality of service.
Take a look at the other two sections instead. 31.12% describe the relationship as “room for improvement,” particularly in terms of the clarity of the mechanisms and the smoothness of communication. And most importantly: 16.84% answered “not applicable,” which, according to the authors, may indicate the absence of a direct relationship or one that is not significant enough to warrant a judgment.
Nearly one in six companies in the sector therefore has nothing to say about the DGA, due to a lack of shared history. The study makes it clear that the quality of the dialogue dependson whether contacts have been established: when they have, the exchanges are described as open, friendly, and constructive. It all comes down to what happens beforehand.
More than 60% of companies rate their relationships with industrial prime contractors as good or very good, particularly when they are already part of established programs. However, one-quarter describe these relationships as “average,” and nearly 12% consider them difficult, citing limited access to major programs, a lack of transparency, and difficulties integrating into supplier panels.
The most striking figure:58% of respondents believe they face an asymmetrical balance of power thatfavors prime contractors. Added to this is short-term economic visibility, with order backlogs often falling short of six months despite the LPM and the wartime economy.
In an asymmetrical power dynamic, reputation is one of the few levers you control entirely on your own. This is precisely the focus of our analysis onhow to manage coopetition with defense contractors: being known beyond your direct client reduces your dependence.
This is the point most relevant to your situation. The survey highlights a paradox: while funding needs are significant and the outlook is favorable, the dedicated programs remain little known, underutilized, and considered difficult to access.
Takeup rates are shockingly low: 5.3% for the European Defense Fund, 3.2% for the Defense Innovation Fund, 1.8% for Definvest, and less than 1% for the DEF’FI Loan. Yet 22% to 31% of respondents would like to access these programs. The obstacle is clear: up to 45% of companies report being unaware of certain programs, and 84% perceive European mechanisms such as SAFE, EDIP, EDIRPA, or ASAP as complex and difficult to access.
The same logic applies to exports: 74.9% of respondents are unaware that the DGA can assist companies with certain U.S. certifications.
The Minister of the Armed Forces, Catherine Vautrin, draws this conclusion herself in the study’s preface: a still-too-large proportion of these programs remains, in her words, “little known, little used, and considered difficult to access,” and the challenge is not merely to create tools but to make them clear and accessible. Jean-Michel Jacques, chairman of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee, adds a point that every SME leader should take to heart: we must ensure that SMEs benefit from “the same visibility that the Military Planning Law (LPM) provides to large corporations.”
Keep this mechanism in mind—it’s the core of this article: in this system, what isn’t made visible isn’t activated.This is true of public systems. It’s just as true of your references.
The survey also quantifies the HR challenges: 43.5% of respondents are already experiencing difficulties recruiting in production, and 45.7% in engineering. Among the causes identified are the difficulty in offering attractive compensation (28.3%), competition from large corporations (20.8%), and the image of the defense and industrial sectors.
A well-presented RETEX, then, isn’t just useful to your buyers. It’s also useful to the 28-year-old engineer who’s torn between you and a large corporation. The same asset serves two markets.
Let's move on to the converse: what perfectly organized visibility produces.
On August 31, 2026, French President Emmanuel Macron joined Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Stockholm for the signing of the 4.3 billion-euro Swedish contract for four defense and intervention frigates. The contract was signed between Naval Group and the FMV, the Swedish equivalent of the Directorate General of Armaments.
Now consider the argument put forward. Naval Group states it clearly: with two units already delivered to the French and Hellenic navies and a proven production line, the FDI was able to meet Sweden’s requirement for rapid delivery, with the first unit scheduled for 2030.
Two deliveries. Public. Documented. The lead ship intended for the French Navy, the Amiral Ronarc’h, was delivered in October 2025, followed by the first Greek vessel, the Kimon, in December of the same year.
The commercial outcome is spectacular. Barely four months elapsed between the announcement of the Swedish decision and the actual signing of the contract—a particularly short timeframe for this type of military program, which is typically subject to lengthy negotiations. And the timeline is considered feasible precisely because the FDI is no longer just a concept: two units have already joined the French and Greek fleets, coming off a production line whose efficiency has now been proven.
The reference effect is cumulative: the Swedish order brings the total number of FDI frigates sold to thirteen—a class of frigate that is currently the only new-generation front-line combat vessel adopted by three NATO navies.
A buyer doesn't buy a technical promise. They buy proof of a proven, consistent track record.
This mechanism can be applied as-is to an SME with forty employees. The only question that matters is: Does your most recent successful delivery exist outside of your direct client’s memory? If the answer is no, you don’t have a track record. You have a memory.
Delair, a drone company founded in 2011 in Labège near Toulouse, was 80% civilian and 20% military five years ago; today, it’s the exact opposite, with the company supplying the French military and foreign armed forces. Its president, Bastien Mancini, sums up the company’s trajectory: “We’re in a booming market; we’ve increased our revenue tenfold in five years.”
This growth is underpinned by a track record of execution established very early on. Delair had already successfully fulfilled an order from the DGA in just a few months for 150 drones (100 unarmed UX11s and 50 DT26s). The company’s CEO has publicly cited the following results: revenue that has doubled every year for the past three years, with 30 million euros in revenue in 2024 and 60 million projected for 2025, and a workforce of over 200 employees across four sites.
The strategic focus lies elsewhere. The DT61, unveiled at Le Bourget, was designed to meet the requirements of the SDTL (Light Tactical Drone System) request for proposals. Delair’s solutions are used, in particular, by the Ukrainian armed forces, and the French Navy tested remotely operated munitions during the Dragoon Fury exercise aboard the PHA Tonnerre.
Think about it. Delair doesn’t approach the DGA with a prototype. It approaches the DGA with a use case.The RETEX comes before the product, and it’s the RETEX—once made public—that lends the product credibility.
Shark Robotics generates 90% of its revenue from exports to more than 25 countries. Founded in 2016 in La Rochelle, the company has delivered more than 350 land robots.
Its Ukraine project is a textbook example of RETEX in action. On November 25, the La Rochelle-based deep-tech company celebrated in Ukraine the delivery and deployment of 40 Colossus firefighting robots for the Ukrainian fire department, under a 14.5 million euro contract funded by France through the Ukraine Fund. CEO Cyrille Kabbara sums it up with a statement that’s perfect for a pitch: “We delivered 40 robots in 7 months, and we’re ready to do more.”
Note the structure. No scripted speech. A pause, a tone of voice, the ability to respond. And a follow-up: Shark is setting up a joint venture in Ukraine to ensure continued operational readiness and capitalize on lessons learned in the field.
Capitalize on RETEX. That’s the company’s term, not ours.
What Delair and Shark Robotics have in common:neither relies on a new contract to maintain its presence in the industry.They arebothpart of an ongoing operational narrative. This positioning is all the more valuable given that, according to the Richelieu Committee Observatory, 77.6% of respondents believe that European sovereignty can be a competitive advantage in accessing European defense markets. However, it must be invoked appropriately—a topic we address in our article onexport brand strategy without arrogance.
Here is the procedure. Four filters, applied in order, one at a time.
| Filter | Question to Ask | The Fate of Information |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Confidential | Is the information subject to a clause, a classification, or a need-to-know policy? | Permanently withdrawn. No exceptions. |
| 2. Credits | Is this information already public or common knowledge in the industry? | Retained, but adds no distinctive value. Does not support the argument. |
| 3. Valuable | Does the information demonstrate competence, the overcoming of a challenge, or reliability? | Core message. Needs to be reworded. |
| 4. Broadcast-ready | Is it possible to describe this skill without revealing the sensitive context? | Move on to content production. |
The real work happens at filter 4. You aren't deleting the information—you're moving up a level of abstraction.
| What Your Report Says | What You Post |
|---|---|
| "Delivery of 120 subassemblies for Program X to Customer Y" | "Scaling up from 0 to more than 100 qualified subassemblies in 9 months, in response to an urgent government need" |
| "Qualification earned at the Z site in March" | "Qualification achieved on the first attempt against a NATO-level customer standard" |
| "Return of the defective batch from Supplier A" | "Replacing a faulty link in the chain in 5 weeks, without delaying any customer milestones" |
| "MCO Operations Abroad: Non-Communicable Disease" | "Proven ability to provide support outside mainland France, in challenging environments" |
Golden rule: The subject of the RETEX is you, never your client.You’re not describing the program; you’re describing your behavior within the program. This is exactly the shift we describe in our analysisof selling operational capability rather than a product.
Don’t try to keep up with a constant media schedule.One well-crafted RETEX per quarter is enough to change how the market perceives you.Four per year, across all four formats, amounts to sixteen annual touchpoints with an ecosystem that, right now, doesn’t even know your name.
Allow two hours of work per RETEX once the grid is in place. The bottleneck is never the time required. It’s the lack of an owner for the task in the organizational chart.
On September 29, 2026, the DGA will host the third stop of the DGA SME Tour in Bouguenais, near Nantes, as part of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs’ plan to support mid-sized companies, SMEs, and startups (PEPS). Co-organized with regional clusters and supported by GICAN, GICAT, EDEN, and Smart Power, the event will devote the afternoon to B2B meetings and discussions between companies and contracting authorities.
In practical terms, you’ll have a few minutes with a recruiter who will be interviewing thirty candidates that day.
Two scenarios. The one who shows up with a product brochure reads from a catalog and will be forgotten by 6 p.m. The one who shows up with three calibrated RETEX units demonstrates a successful implementation, leaves a lasting impression, and gives a reason to be remembered. Keep in mind the Observatory’s figure: 16.84% of companies in the sector don’t even have a meaningful relationship with the DGA. A day like this is meant to help you stand out—not just to check a box.
The difference between presence and authority lies precisely there, as we explain when discussingthe distinction between actual visibility and mere presence at a trade show.
The risk of inaction is quantifiable: you remain among the 73 percent. Unidentified. Unconsulted. Technically excellent but commercially absent.
Let’s retrace the logical chain. A defense contractor secures a track record of repeated performance. Naval Group has demonstrated this with 4.3 billion euros in revenue from two delivered and visible frigates. Delair and Shark Robotics are demonstrating this on an SME scale, without any announcement of a new contract. And the Richelieu Committee Observatory proves, program by program, that in this sector, what isn’t made transparent is never implemented.
Your RETEX is not a technical asset. It is a reputational asset.And a reputational asset that sits in a binder doesn't generate any value.
What you’re missing isn’t content or legitimacy. It’s a system: a classification grid, a schedule, someone in charge of the topic, and formats prepared in advance so you don’t have to improvise three days before a meeting with the DGA.
That is precisely the purpose ofthe Influence & Authority Engine. We work with you to build the entire process: extracting dormant best practices, balancing confidentiality with value creation, producing content, engaging executives on LinkedIn and in the trade press, and aligning the schedule with your RFP and trade show deadlines. The goal isn’t to make you talkative. It’s to make your excellence visible to decision-makers.
