Research Reports • September 25, 2026

2026 Gartner® Top Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing Trends

Guest Writer
“Featured

To our knowledge, Gartner has identified the technology imperatives that will define aerospace and defense manufacturing through the end of the decade. Is your organization ready?

A&D manufacturers face a critical inflection point. Geopolitical instability, supply chain pressure, and compressed development timelines are colliding with rising compliance demands — and the organizations that move fastest on the right digital priorities will pull ahead.

In this report, Gartner identifies seven distinct trends reshaping how the industry designs, builds, and sustains complex systems — and the actions CIOs and operations leaders must take now.

What You’ll Uncover

  • Why most AI initiatives in A&D stall before they scale — and what has to come first
  • The two digital imperatives Gartner says will define A&D competitiveness through 2030
  • Which factory model is gaining traction across commercial and defense programs
  • How organizations are turning supply chain disruption into competitive advantage
  • The agentic AI use cases moving from experimentation to enterprise deployment in 2026

Download your complimentary copy to see where A&D manufacturing is headed — and what it means for your technology strategy.

Gartner®, Top Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing Trends for 2026, Sudip Pattanayak, Val Sribar, Jay Phipps, Marc Halpern, Michael McFerron, 13 April 2026.

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