Dual-use technology is no longer a fringe topic. It is the most critical pathway for accelerating defense capability development across Europe. From edge computing and digital twins to autonomous systems and smart payloads, commercial markets are moving fast. These technologies can revolutionize defense capabilities, but only if they are identified, adapted, and scaled correctly. This practical 10-step guide explores how organizations can bridge that gap and turn promising dual-use technologies into real-world defense impact.
Want to know more about dual-use technology? Check out our previous blog about How dual-use innovation fixes Europe’s defense innovation bottleneck!
Step 1: Start with the operational need
Every successful innovation journey starts with the mission, not the technology. Begin by identifying the specific operational challenge you want to solve. Are you trying to improve situational awareness? Reduce risks for soldiers? Secure critical infrastructure?
A well-defined need provides a clear filter for evaluating potential solutions. Rather than chasing the latest technology, you build a focused pipeline of capabilities that directly support operational objectives.
Step 2: Translate the need into capability requirements
Once the mission is clear, translate it into concrete technical and operational requirements. Consider factors such as performance under extreme conditions, ruggedization, SWaP constraints, cybersecurity and interoperability.
A commercial product might work flawlessly in a civilian setting but may fail on the battlefield. The goal of this step isn’t to copy civilian technology, but to adapt it intelligently so it can succeed in demanding defense scenarios.
Step 3: Scout beyond the traditional defense ecosystem
Many of today’s most promising technologies originate outside the defense sector. Start-ups, space companies, AI developers, and advanced manufacturing firms are pushing the boundaries of innovation and hold capabilities ripe for transfer.
That’s why broadening your scouting search increases the chances of finding faster, more cost-effective solutions. Structured initiatives like open calls for innovation challenges, hackathons, and accelerators are vital for engaging these non-traditional innovators.
Step 4: Evaluate technology maturity and mission fit
Finding an innovative solution is only the beginning. The next question is whether it can realistically meet operational demands. You should assess both technical maturity and mission relevance. Is it secure? Can it integrate with legacy systems? Does the supplier have the bandwidth to support long-term defense applications? Focusing on these questions helps identify the technologies with the clearest, most viable path to operational readiness.
Step 5: Test early, realistically, and repeatedly
In general, assumptions should be challenged as early as possible. Field trials, simulated operations, and technical assessments all can provide the evidence needed to validate performance before major investments are made. Early testing also exposes integration challenges, security vulnerabilities, and operational limitations before heavy investments have been made.
Early structured validation can reduce late-stage acquisition failure rates by up to 40%.
Step 6: Adapt and ruggedize the solution
Turning commercial technology into defense capability requires far more than minor modifications. Hardware must be ruggedized, cybersecurity strengthened, data protected in GPS-denied environments, and power consumption optimized.
This step demands multidisciplinary expertise across mechanics, electronics, AI, and system architecture. The strongest solutions are fully integrated systems, not isolated tech.
Step 7: Plan for integration from the start
A tool that can’t communicate with your operational environment is useless. Integration and interoperability should therefore be treated as a strategic design principle from the outset, not as a final implementation task. It’s the only way to guarantee that new solutions integrate seamlessly with existing platforms, command structures, and secure networks.
Step 8: Build organizational absorption capacity
Technology alone does not create innovation. Organizations also need the right processes, structures skills, procurement flexibility, data security knowledge and governance to adopt new capabilities successfully.
Without that internal capacity, even the promising technologies often struggle to move beyond pilot projects, regardless of their technical potential.
Step 9: Bridge the gap from prototype to production
Many promising innovations stall in the so-called ‘valley of death’ between successful demonstration and operational deployment. A working prototype may prove feasibility, but it says little about production quality, scalable manufacturing and secure European supply chains.
Questions about manufacturing capacity, supply chain resilience, maintenance, and lifecycle support should be addressed early. After all, a capability only delivers strategic value if it can be produced, deployed, and sustained over time.
Step 10: Create a repeatable innovation pipeline
Organizations that consistently outperform others do not rely on isolated innovation projects. Instead, they establish repeatable processes that continuously connect operational needs with market intelligence, technology validation, and industrial scaling.
By connecting dual-use innovation into a structured pipeline, with market intelligence, technical validation, and industrial scaling, defense organizations can respond more quickly to emerging threats while maintaining a lasting strategic advantage.
How Verhaert supports dual-use adoption
Verhaert guides defense organizations and contractors through the entire dual-use journey. From defining capability needs and scouting emerging tech to ruggedizing systems and industrial scaling, we bridge the gap between commercial innovation and operational readiness.
Our multidisciplinary expertise spans space, cyber, medical, and autonomous systems.
- For defense forces: Faster access to relevant, deployable technologies.
- For contractors: A robust innovation pipeline and scalable engineering capacity.
- For Europe: A fortified, sovereign technology base.
Don’t let your innovations die in the ‘valley of death’. Ready to turn commercial innovation into strategic advantage? Book a consultation with Verhaert’s defense engineering experts to build a secure, scalable and repeatable dual-use adoption pipeline.