A drone swarm hovers over a wheat field – not for surveillance, but for pest analysis. An AI system calculates harvest forecasts based on satellite data. Meanwhile, a Berlin-based startup is developing rapid tests for food safety – using a technology originally designed to detect chemicals in crisis zones. Welcome to the world of dual-use innovation.
Across Europe, around 260 DefenseTech startups are active today. In Germany, about 24% of these startups are developing technologies with dual-use potential. In 2025 alone, over €900 million were invested in German DefenseTech ventures – with a significant portion going to Bavaria, where Munich has become a European hotspot. At the same time, the agricultural sector is undergoing rapid digital transformation: automation, connected machinery, and AI-driven sensors are shaping an industry increasingly dependent on resilience.
What’s being tested in the fields today might serve crisis zones tomorrow. And technologies designed for high-stakes security environments can help make food systems more robust. AgriTech and DefenseTech are converging – especially where efficiency, scalability, and crisis resilience are key.
Resilience as a Strategic Priority
"Technological sovereignty is more than a buzzword – it’s a cornerstone of resilience," states the de:hub Security & Defense. In today’s European security landscape, it's no longer just about traditional defense. What's needed are sovereign technologies, secure infrastructures, and innovations with tangible benefits for civil society.
In agriculture, too, resilience is becoming a strategic production factor. The de:hub AgriFood explains: “Security and resilience are increasingly determining competitiveness and food security.” Automation, robotics, AI, and biotech tools like CRISPR/Cas are creating new opportunities – but also new dependencies on digital systems and global supply chains. This is where the overlap begins.
When Agriculture Thinks Connected – and Security Benefits
Dual-use technologies such as drones, autonomous vehicles, and AI-based sensors are already used in both sectors. In agriculture, they collect environmental data, optimize input use, and secure yields. In the defense and security sector, the same systems help monitor critical infrastructure, generate situational awareness, or enable early crisis detection.
One example: Driveblocks, a startup from the de:hub Security & Defense, originally developed software for autonomous driving in agriculture. Today, the team is exploring security-focused applications for terrain monitoring and border mapping.
Aurora Tech also illustrates dual use in action: the company uses satellite imagery for wildfire prevention. The same AI-powered platform can also be applied for situational analysis in crisis regions.
DefenseTech Booms – and Looks for Synergies
2025 marks a turning point: investor interest in DefenseTech in Europe is at an all-time high. Germany is leading – accounting for around two-thirds of the continent’s total investments. In Munich alone, more than €1.8 billion has flowed into defense-related startups since 2019. But the momentum isn’t solely driven by security concerns – these technologies are highly versatile and commercially scalable.
AI-powered situational analysis, autonomous robotics, resilient networked infrastructures – many of these solutions can be applied beyond defense. They’re especially valuable in sectors where systems need to be robust, mobile, and interoperable. Agriculture is a prime example.
Security Becomes a Production Factor
Agriculture is becoming digital, automated, and connected – and, as a result, more vulnerable. When machines communicate with sensors and satellite data drives harvest forecasting, we’re looking at a system that is not only efficient but must also be secured. Cybersecurity, redundancy, and resilient infrastructure – once exclusive to defense – are now essential in food production.
AgriTech startups, in turn, are delivering technologies that easily translate into security-critical contexts. Sensors, drones, AI-based analytics – all these tools can be used just as effectively in environmental monitoring or crisis management as in farming.
Take SAFIA Technologies from the de:hub AgriFood: originally developed for rapid food testing, its technology is now used in the EU project REACTION to detect chemical hazards in food supply chains. From civilian roots to security-relevant applications – a textbook dual-use case.
Dual Use Needs Practice – and a European Perspective
For technologies to succeed across sectors, it takes more than interfaces. It requires places where collaboration becomes real. That’s exactly what the de:hubs in Osnabrück, Hannover, and Munich provide: testbeds where startups can validate their solutions in real-world conditions – technically, regulatorily, and together with users from different industries.
Many of today’s challenges – from food security to crisis response – are cross-sectoral and pan-European. The earlier interoperable systems are co-developed and tested, the more robust they become. Dual use isn’t a niche – it’s an opportunity: for hands-on innovation, cross-sector resilience, and a technologically sovereign Europe.
