航空航天与国防工程领导者如何加速上市时间？：通过扩展AI、数字工程和全球人才实现更快交付

Scaling AI, digital engineering, andglobal talent to deliver faster Aerospace and Defense (A&D) are underpressure on multiple fronts. Demand isrising, as backlogs grow and deliverytimelines slip. Input costs are increasing,while ongoing design changes – driven bysustainability goals, supply chaindisruption, and evolving requirementsand regulations – add complexity andexpense in a highly regulatedenvironment. Alongside these immediatechallenges, companies must invest heavilyin next-generation platforms, deliveringstep changes in efficiency, emissions, andoperating costs. continuing to deliver and support legacyprograms at scale. With thousands ofexperienced engineers and architectsapproaching retirement, the risk is notjust slower delivery, but loss of criticalknow-how. To better understand how leaders arenavigating these challenges, Capgeminisurveyed 200 senior Aerospace & Defenseexecutives across OEMs, suppliers,airlines, airports, and defenseorganizations as part of our 2026 cross-sector Engineering and R&D Pulseresearch. We hope this collective view ofthe industry will help everyone gaugetheir position relative to their peers, andbetter understand shared challenges andsolutions. This pressure coincides with a structuraltransition for the industry: over the nextdecade, A&D organizations must replaceplatforms largely designed in the 1980swith next-generation systems, while What we found A need to move faster Our ER&D Pulse survey shows thatimprovingtime-to-market is the sector’stop priority, beating other prioritiesincluding cost reduction, capacity scaling,agility, and regulatory compliance. (Chart1). This urgency is rooted in executives’ livedexperience. Three quarters saydesigntimelines have increasedover the lastthree years. Even more sayproductionand times have lengthened,and 85% alsosaycosts have risen(Chart 2). All this ishappening whilst order books swell andbacklogs mount. Being faster - and thus reducing total costs -is not just good business, it may beexistential. Around half worried that failureto improve could see emerging players stealtheir lunch (Chart 3). In an industry with suchhigh barriers to entry, this is an alarmingfinding, but it shows that even Aerospaceand Defense is not immune to disruption. This urgency is amplified by the need to runtwo engineering models in parallel:accelerating delivery of existing programswhile redesigning future platforms withfundamentally new technologies. Manyorganizations are not yet structured to doboth at once. How much do they need to improve onspeed and cost?Answers varied, but manyrespondents suggested they needed to see5-15% improvements in both to remaincompetitive in the coming years (Chart 4). Faster. But also more innovative,more flexible, lower cost, and withreliable access to talent Whilst time-to-market came out top for many whenasked to choose where they would focus (Chart 1), it isfar from the only concern.Innovation and valuecreation using digital technologies was important to80%(Chart 5).This is an area of investment that playsa significant role in cutting time-to-market, as well asdelivering other priorities, such as reducing costs andimproving organizational agility – both of which areimportant to over half of organizations surveyed(Chart 5). Nurturing the next generation of talent was also apriority. Interestingly, safety and compliance wereseen as very important to almost everyone (80%), butmost did not list it in their top priorities for action(Chart 1). Our assumption is that this reflects maturityin this area, with rigorous processes already in place.Whilst perhaps not an area of active transformation inits own right, compliance must of course remain at theheart of everything, even as the shape of theorganization changes. A challenging world Delivering these priorities will not beeasy. Aerospace & Defense companiesface a tough environment, and leadersreported significant exposure to multiple,overlapping risks. These ranged fromsupply chain disruptions and geopoliticaluncertainty(cited as a major threat by74% and 73% respectively) – driven byclimate events, tariffs, sovereigntymandates, trade barriers, and conflict –toshortages in talent, cited as a majorthreat by 73% (especially in engineering,digital, and AI). Looming over all of this isAI, which isseen as a potential disruptive threat by78% of leaders, but also a hugeopportunity, as we will come ontoseparately. Is Aerospace & Defense readyfor a changing world? Despite these concerns, organizational preparedness was felt to berelatively low. Just 37% said their company was well prepared forthe talent shortage, and 38% for supply chain disruptions. A slightlyhigher 48% said they were ready for geopolitical uncertainty, and46% felt prepared for AI. Lack of preparedness for challenges hasreal consequences – capacity bottlenecks in engineering roles orsupply chains translate into slower concept development,manufacture, and certification – at a time when they say the