Quick Take

Arming Responsibly: Why Western Governments Must Lead on Cobalt Sourcing in the Defense Sector

July 20, 2026

According to new data published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), world military expenditure reached $2.887 trillion in 2025—the 11th consecutive year of growth, and the highest level as a share of GDP since 2009. European spending alone rose 14 percent, and SIPRI projects this growth will continue through 2026 and beyond. Cobalt—a critical ingredient in drones and other aircraft—is central to this expansion. NATO has identified cobalt as a defense-critical material, essential for producing superalloys used in jet engines, missiles, and submarines that must withstand extreme temperatures and stress.

The global combat drone market is projected to grow from $7.9 billion in 2025 to $11.8 billion by 2030, requiring larger batteries and therefore larger volumes of cobalt. With these developments, the defense sector is rapidly becoming one of the most significant new drivers of cobalt demand, and almost no one is asking where that cobalt comes from, or under what conditions it was mined.

Two-thirds of the world’s cobalt is produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An estimated 15 to 30 percent of that cobalt originates in artisanal and small-scale mines, where workers extract ore from hand-dug shafts under conditions that create significant human rights risks, such as child labor and mining accidents, as our research on cobalt supply chains has documented in detail. The informal sector allows for the most rapid, spontaneous expansion of production capacity when demand spikes. As defense spending drives new demand for cobalt, it is the informal mining sector that will absorb much of that pressure first. Without intervention, this means more debt bondage, more unsafe working conditions, and more human rights violations at the base of defense supply chains.

This creates a direct and uncomfortable contradiction for Western governments. Many Western governments have adopted National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights. Several—including Germany, Switzerland, Norway, and Japan—explicitly address public procurement. Yet defense procurement remains a conspicuous blind spot, shielded from the scrutiny these commitments were designed to enable. Governments are the primary purchasers of defense equipment. When a government buys a fighter jet, a fleet of military drones, or a guided weapons system, it is also, several supply chain tiers removed, a purchaser of cobalt. The human rights commitments enshrined in National Action Plans should apply to that purchase as much as to any other.

They rarely do. Human rights due diligence requirements that have begun to reshape corporate supply chains in sectors like fashion and electronics have made almost no inroads into defense contracting. This is a gap that governments themselves have the power to close.

The solution is not complicated in principle. Governments should require defense contractors—as a condition of public contracts—to demonstrate that their cobalt sourcing supports the formalization of artisanal and small-scale mining. Formalization, specifically through the adoption of open-pit mining areas and the integration of women miners, transforms the economics of artisanal mining. Miners begin producing and earning from day one, eliminating the debt dynamic that creates forced labor risk. It also creates employment opportunities for women, which positively affects household income—a key factor in reducing child labor. Formalization also improves safety significantly, replacing the underground shafts, dug hastily to keep pace with demand, that are prone to collapse with open-air working environments. The blueprint exists. Our research on cobalt formalization in the DRC has demonstrated that this approach works and that it is achievable when the right incentives and requirements are in place.

Western governments have spent the past decade building the policy architecture for responsible business conduct. National Action Plans, mandatory human rights due diligence legislation, and public procurement guidelines are all tools that exist and are already in use. What is missing is the political will to apply them consistently—including to the defense sector, where the combination of rising demand, opacity, and informal supply chains creates exactly the conditions under which human rights violations thrive.

Governments that are serious about their human rights commitments should make responsible cobalt sourcing a standard requirement of defense procurement. They have the leverage. They have the policy tools. And they have the research to know what good practice looks like. The question is whether they are willing to apply the same standards to their own purchasing that they are beginning to demand of others.

Global Labor