In 2026, cybersecurity has decisively moved into the hardware supply chain for military and defence applications. This shift is particularly significant for suppliers of passive components, such as capacitors, resistors, filters, and quartz devices, which form the foundation of semiconductor system performance. For these suppliers, risk assessment now extends beyond traditional metrics like product quality, environmental robustness, and long-term availability. It now includes critical factors such as data integrity, sourcing assurance, documentation control, and the resilience of digital systems used in their operations.
Passive components play a vital role in ensuring the functionality and reliability of semiconductor systems. Capacitors stabilise processors and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) power rails; resistors define bias and sensing paths; filters condition radio frequency (RF) and power domains; and quartz devices maintain timing integrity across communications, radar, and navigation electronics. Any issue with these components can cascade through the system, causing noise, drifting, instability, or latent reliability loss. This means that a problem with passive components does not remain isolated to the Bill of Materials (BOM); it can degrade the performance of the semiconductor devices and subsystems they support.
Why the market is changing
The regulatory and customer environment is driving passive suppliers to address cybersecurity risks. In Europe, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Part-IS regulation extends information-security obligations into supply chain and subcontracting relationships, even for suppliers who are not the primary regulated aviation entity. In the United States, tougher defence cybersecurity requirements are creating cost and qualification pressures on smaller suppliers. This is particularly significant for a market that relies heavily on specialist distributors, legacy inventory channels, and long-tail component support.
Defence customers are increasingly treating cyber resilience as a key factor in supplier selection. For high-consequence programs, they demand confidence that part records, source-control documents, screening data, certificates of conformance, and engineering-change notifications cannot be silently altered or compromised. This shift is turning passive sourcing into a trust problem as much as a procurement problem.
The technical risks of passive components
While passive components do not execute software, they shape the electrical environment in which trusted semiconductors operate. For example, high-reliability multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) support decoupling and transient suppression around processors, RF stages, and converters. Precision resistors, inductors, and filters define control-loop behaviour, signal integrity, and electromagnetic compatibility. In defence applications, issues such as substituted dielectric systems, poor lot control, out-of-family parametric behaviour, or falsified screening records can create faults that appear as unexplained hardware instability rather than obvious cyber events.
This is strategically important because a secure FPGA, power device, or data converter cannot compensate for a compromised passive network. In mixed-signal and RF systems, even small deviations in passive components can alter gain, filtering, phase response, or timing margin long before a failure is isolated during maintenance. From an analyst perspective, this is why passive integrity should be viewed as part of semiconductor assurance, not as a separate low-value concern.
Cyber risks in the supply chain
The primary cyber risks for passive suppliers lie in the digital systems used to specify, source, inspect, certify, store, and ship components. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) databases, certificate-generation tools, vendor portals, and archived test repositories are all critical systems that sit between an approved part number and its installation in a defence assembly.
If these systems are compromised, part genealogy can be corrupted, lots can be mixed, source-control revisions can be altered, obsolete inventory can be reintroduced, and certificates can be falsified. This is why the counterfeit problem in defence electronics should increasingly be analysed as a cyber-enabled supply chain issue.
Market signals and supplier strategies
Leading companies are adapting to these challenges by evolving their models to address both cybersecurity and lifecycle assurance:
- Avnet: this authorised distributor is moving beyond fulfilment to act as a control layer for defence electronics. Its aerospace and defence model emphasises counterfeit protection, document control, source-control drawing management, obsolescence support, and compliance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Defence Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) requirements under ISO 9001 and EN9120 quality systems. This highlights the growing value of distributors not just for access to components but for their ability to preserve trusted information and lifecycle continuity
- Aston Technologies: specialises in stockholding and obsolete-part support for sensitive sectors like aeronautics and defence. This model becomes strategically relevant when program life exceeds commercial component life, as storage discipline, inspection quality, and documentation integrity become key determinants of whether aging passive stock can still be trusted
- Princeps: reflects the trend toward trusted sourcing models. Defence customers increasingly prefer traceable, controlled routes to rugged power components and associated passive content rather than opportunistic spot-market procurement. This shift underscores the importance of chain-of-custody assurance and long-term support for high-consequence systems
Suppliers that combine component expertise with secure digital processes are best positioned to succeed. On the digital side, this means hardened ERP and PLM systems, restricted access to controlled documents, secure portals, audit trails, and resilient backups of certificates, drawings, and test records. On the hardware side, it means strong incoming inspection, counterfeit detection, lot-level traceability, controlled storage conditions, and disciplined engineering-change management.
Trends in 2026
The passive component market is undergoing significant changes, driven by three key trends:
- Resilience-led sourcing: defence Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and primes are prioritising lifecycle support, dual-source readiness, traceability, and documentation that can survive audits and cyber scrutiny. Regionalisation is also gaining importance as customers seek to reduce dependence on distant supply chains and improve control over quality escapes, obsolescence, and counterfeit exposure
- Technical miniaturisation: more defence electronics are being designed around dense power conversion, compact RF front ends, and high-reliability mixed-signal modules. This raises the burden on precision capacitors, low-inductance interconnects, and high-stability resistors. Passive suppliers must not only ensure availability but also have tighter parametric control and stronger lot-level consistency
- Digital workflows: supplier portals, digital certificates, and ERP-linked traceability improve speed and visibility but also increase exposure to data manipulation and credential compromise if controls are weak. Suppliers that combine digital visibility with authenticated records, controlled access, and rigorous incoming inspection are most likely to gain market share
Conclusion
In 2026, passive component suppliers are no longer just catalogue vendors; they are assurance partners. Defence customers are demanding secure digital systems, robust physical processes, and traceable lifecycle support. The strongest suppliers will be those that can prove authorised sourcing, archive integrity, secure lifecycle management, and rapid incident response while continuing to support semiconductor-centric defence platforms with stable, traceable passive content. This shift toward resilience and trust is reshaping the passive supply chain for military and defence applications.
By Saloni Gankar, Senior Analyst, Industrial Semiconductors & Paul Pickering, Research Director, Semiconductors, Omdia
This article originally appeared in the July/August issue of Procurement Pro
