The author Jorge Silva Carvalho resumes a 2015 thesis on leadership, strategy and intelligence as the virtuous triangle of management, arguing that the current context has made this approach urgent, with the defense industry being the best example of this need. The article argues that this industry has ceased to be a specialized economic sector to become a space of technological competition, supply security and knowledge dispute.
Portugal has companies, research and talent in unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, robotics, sensors and advanced materials. The author identifies the areas where Portugal can contribute: individual equipment (adapting traditional industries such as clothing and technical footwear), materials (polymers, composites, with tradition in ceramics and cork), certifiable critical software and unmanned systems. The main problem is not innovating, but rather the ability to manufacture in series, with a void between the validated prototype and the certified, protected, financed and exportable product.
The article emphasizes that competitive intelligence is needed to understand technologies, markets and operational requirements, as well as security intelligence to protect a nascent cluster in sensitive technology from intrusions, cyberattacks and knowledge appropriation. The State must intervene on three levels: financial, economic and security.
The REPMUS event, organized by the Portuguese Navy with 36 navies, more than 60 R&D companies and 13 NATO universities and entities, is presented as an example of the way forward. However, the author warns that a permanent interface between the military user, engineering and industry is missing, and that public procurement is treated as an administrative act rather than an industrial policy instrument. Early ordering and multi-year contracts would give Portuguese companies the credential needed for the external market.
