Eurosatory opens its doors on Monday June 15 in Villepinte, north of Paris. Drones in particular will set the tone for the largest land-based arms show.
This meeting of the defense industry will be the receptacle of geopolitical tensions and ongoing conflicts, which is why Eurosatory is full. Several thousand exhibitors from 65 countries is a record. Certain small countries, hitherto unknown in the defense sphere, will even have their stand this year, indicates Charles Beaudoin, commissioner of the Show, and this is the sign of a general rearmament: “L’Uzbekistanfor example, is a country that appears on the spectrum. He did not come to the show, his presence is a first. So, we can clearly see that the show is constantly growing. We will have more than 2 200 exhibitors. We were already the largest security-defense exhibition in the world, but here we opened an additional hall, it is busy. We feel very well that there is a very strong concern in the world to be able to rearm itself in such a way as to be able to possibly face conflicts which seem to be coming.»
Risk of a direct conflict between theEurope and the Russiaconflagration in the Middle East, the armies are looking for turnkey solutions on the shelf, and two subjects predominate: drones and missiles. “Eurosatory 26 is part of a complicated geopolitical situation. Drones and the fight against drones are essential with the need to go much further, much stronger and much more in number for the European armies. Missile and anti-missile topics also come back, with very long-range ground/ground capability. Europe does not have one today and it is a subject that comes up again, there will be proposals on the subject. Who says missiles says anti-missiles. So you will see hypervelocity missile and hypervelocity missile interception solutions. Another subject, space: it is obvious today, the absolute necessity of having microconstellations like Starlink which allowed the Ukrainian army to resist. »
Alongside traditional players in the defense industry, many new entrants are expected. Lots of startups and dual businesses. “Deep tech” is on the rise, for example with artificial intelligence which is interfering in all weapons systems, points out Charles Beaudoin: “Deep tech is these startups that today offer disruptive technologies. Artificial intelligence, the cloud, these are concrete cases in the Ukrainian army and this is clearly where we need to go. What I call the third age of digitalization, after digital systems, is now the age of data exploitation and therefore the age of AI and clouds. »
At Eurosatory, some 80 Ukrainian companies, compared to ten for the previous edition, will present their drones, robotic systems and deep strike missiles, all weapons systems proven in the war against Russia.
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