Expert analysis: can neon gas be used in military applications?

18:52, 20.01.2026 7 min read

Recent years have given industrial gas supply chains unexpected geopolitical weight. Neon, which most people associate exclusively with bright advertising signs, found itself at the center of discussions about technological independence and security. The reason is its critical role in semiconductor production, where it's essential for excimer lasers in lithography equipment. When neon supplies from Ukraine — which controlled about 50% of the global purified neon market — sharply contracted in 2022 due to the full-scale war, the semiconductor industry felt a real shortage. Questions emerged: how critical is this gas for defense technologies? Does neon gas military use have any direct applications in military equipment? And why did Ukraine become such an important supplier?

Neon installations operate at many facilities worldwide, but advertising agencies don't drive primary demand. Cryoin Engineering, which specializes in cryogenic equipment and air separation systems, provides technological solutions for obtaining liquid neon through air rectification. Such installations produce neon with 99.999% concentration, critically important for high-tech applications.

Main directions of neon use today include microelectronics (ArF and KrF excimer lasers for photolithography in chip production with technological norms down to 7 nm), medicine (MRI scanners and certain types of laser surgery), scientific research (cryogenic systems and particle detectors), and specialized lighting.

The military significance of neon is indirect. No weapons use it directly as a component. However, without neon, production of modern microchips — installed in guidance systems, radars, drones, satellites, and communication systems — becomes impossible. That's why neon gas military use should be viewed through the prism of technological supply chains.

The history of Ukrainian neon began decades ago. Metallurgical plants in Mariupol, Kamianske, and Zaporizhzhia had powerful Air Separation Units (ASUs) producing oxygen for metallurgical processes. Neon is a byproduct of such production — it accumulates in waste nitrogen fractions during cryogenic rectification.

Ukrainian enterprises — particularly Ingas (Mariupol) and Cryoin (Odesa) — established processes for purifying neon to semiconductor-grade level. This requires complex multi-stage purification from hydrogen, nitrogen, helium, and other gas impurities. The finished product supplied companies like ASML (Netherlands), Intel, Samsung, TSMC, and other chip-industry giants.

Conversation about rare gases always balances between civilian and defense contexts. Helium, argon, krypton, xenon, and neon share similar usage trajectories — first scientific research, then industry, and through that, indirect impact on the defense sector.

Take helium as an example. It's critically important for cooling superconducting magnets in MRI scanners but also used in military surveillance airships and ballistic missile guidance systems. The US even created the National Helium Reserve in 1925, anticipating its strategic significance.

Argon is applied in welding titanium and aluminum alloys for aerospace industry. The same technologies go into producing both civilian Boeing aircraft and F-35 fighters. Xenon is used in ion engines for satellites — both commercial telecommunications and military reconnaissance ones.

Experts in export control typically don't classify neon as dual-use material in the direct sense. The Wassenaar Arrangement — an international agreement on export control of conventional armaments — doesn't include neon in controlled goods lists. The reason is simple: the gas itself has no direct military application.

However, semiconductor equipment requiring neon absolutely falls under dual-use technologies. ASML Twinscan NXT and NXE series lithography equipment is controlled by US and EU export restrictions. China has spent years trying to obtain access to the most advanced models but faces rigid limitations.

February 2022 shocked the global chip industry. Two main Ukrainian companies — Ingas and Cryoin — either stopped operations or sharply reduced production volumes. Ingas in Mariupol was completely destroyed during the city's siege. Cryoin in Odesa managed to preserve some capacity, but export logistics became extraordinarily complex.

Intel, Samsung, and TSMC publicly stated they had strategic neon reserves for 3-6 months. Simultaneously, emergency supply diversification programs launched. Chinese producers began ramping up their own production, though achieving semiconductor-grade quality proved harder than expected. Russia theoretically has technical capabilities for neon production at metallurgical combines, but sanctions limit equipment exports for gas purification.

The global liquid gas industry reacted quickly. Air Liquide (France), Linde (Germany/UK), and Air Products (USA) — the three largest industrial gas suppliers — began modernizing existing ASU installations to increase neon output. Japan's Taiyo Nippon Sanso also invested in production expansion.

ArF excimer lasers (Argon Fluoride) generate ultraviolet radiation with 193 nm wavelength. This is achieved through electrical discharge in a mixture of argon, fluorine, and neon under high pressure. Neon serves as a buffer gas that stabilizes the discharge and improves laser efficiency.

Cymer (owned by ASML) and Gigaphoton (Japan) are the two main producers of such lasers. Each laser consumes approximately 20-30 liters of semiconductor-grade neon per hour of operation. A modern semiconductor fab can have 50-100 such lasers running 24/7. Simple calculation shows one large plant consumes about 15,000-20,000 cubic meters of neon annually.

Semiconductor-grade neon must have minimum 99.999% (5N) purity. Critical impurities requiring removal include nitrogen (can absorb UV radiation, reducing laser efficiency), oxygen and hydrogen (create explosion hazard during electrical discharges), hydrocarbons (contaminate optical laser elements), and moisture (internal component corrosion).

Events of 2022-2024 demonstrated the vulnerability of just-in-time supply models in high-tech industries. The semiconductor industry traditionally minimized warehouse stocks to reduce costs. Neon is difficult to store — it requires cryogenic tanks at -246°C or high-pressure cylinders. Most fab plants kept 60-90 day maximum reserves.

McKinsey in its report "Semiconductor supply-chain lessons from 2021-2023" highlights neon as a classic example of "silent" critical dependency — when an inexpensive component (neon cost less than 0.01% of finished chip value) can paralyze billions of dollars in production.

China drew strategic conclusions faster than others. The State Council in 2023 approved a five-year program to create a fully autonomous semiconductor production chain, including domestic production of all necessary gases. SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation) invested $200 million in a joint venture with Hangzhou Jingong to build a semiconductor-grade neon plant with 10,000 cubic meters annual capacity.

Conversation about rare gases industrial vs military applications takes on new dimensions in the context of technological decoupling between US/EU and China. The Biden administration in 2022-2023 imposed strict restrictions on exporting advanced chip equipment to China. The CHIPS and Science Act allocated $52 billion to revive semiconductor production in the US.

Part of this strategy involves control over critical materials. The Department of Commerce added to control lists not only equipment but also specialized materials, including ultra-pure gases. Formally, neon doesn't yet fall under these restrictions, but experts predict possible changes.

The European Union within the European Chips Act framework (€43 billion investment) also emphasizes creating a complete supply chain within the bloc. This includes supporting industrial gas production expansion by companies like Air Liquide and Linde.

The question of whether neon has direct military application has a clear answer: no. However, its role in modern geopolitics is hard to overestimate. Independent expert conclusions inert gases confirm that control over critical material supply chains becomes more important than owning weapons themselves.

The 2022 Ukrainian crisis catalyzed a rethinking of global semiconductor industry strategies. Supply diversification, creation of strategic reserves, investment in local production — all these steps were accelerated by neon shortage. Paradoxically, the "peaceful" application of an inert gas made it an instrument of geopolitical influence.

Coming years will show whether the global industry can create sustainable and geographically balanced supply chains for critical materials. Neon will remain an important test of this sustainability — simple in production but complex in purification to the necessary level, it will continue playing a key role in the technological competition of the 21st century.