As European defense investment accelerates and the threat landscape evolves, autonomous and unmanned systems are increasingly central to national security strategy, NATO operational planning, and multinational capability development. This track brings together defense ministries, military operators, prime contractors, research institutions, innovative start-ups, dual use technologies and procurement officials to examine the full spectrum of unmanned systems in defense. Topics range from ISR and manned-unmanned teaming to counter-UxS, seabed warfare, ground robotics, and contested logistics.
New for 2027, the track features dedicated programming on seabed and subsurface operations, NATO experimentation and exercises, autonomous ground systems, meaningful human control, and the strategic and legal implications of the EU AI Act and NATO AI principles for defense acquisition.
Keywords: ISR, command and control, multinational C2, swarming, electronic warfare, contested logistics, human-machine integration, manned-unmanned teaming, counter-UxS (C-UxS), anti-jamming, detect and avoid, payloads and sensors, cybersecurity, modular open architecture, interoperability, border control, industrial base modernisation, infrastructure protection, multinational cooperation, red teaming, wargaming, UGV mission payloads, EOD and demining, ground-based ISR, counter-UGV, counter-USV, counter-UUV, NATO C-UxS STANAGs, loitering munitions, seabed mapping, subsea cable protection, UUVs/AUVs, Arctic operations, anti-submarine warfare, seabed warfare doctrine, meaningful human control, LAWS, EU AI Act, allied AI standards, NATO experimentation, hybrid threats, sustainment, green Defence
