Article on the theme “Sovereignty, Alliances and Partnerships”, this edition is part of a strategic context characterized by the return of war in Europe and the evolution of threats on the battlefield.
Over these three days, debates and exchanges revolved around key contemporary strategic issues, with a dense program bringing together experts, military personnel, researchers, public decision-makers, and industrialists. In this context, the Defense Innovation Agency (AID) participated in several major interventions aimed at enriching reflection and collective awareness on these different issues.
The intervention of the general armament engineer Patrick Aufort, director of AID, on “artificial intelligence, defense and sovereignty”, explored the crucial issues of this emerging technology in the defense field. A round table with representatives from Naval Group, Airbus, Safran.AI, Capgemini, and the Artificial Intelligence For Industry chair at Télécom Paris, IPP. The director of AID highlighted the specific uses of this dual technology in the defense environment, addressing its constraints of use, which “constitute additional barriers”.
During a round table with representatives from La Mission French Tech, the Directorate of Economic Diplomacy of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Sienna, Firepoint, and Destinus on the theme of “innovation facing the challenges of high intensity”, the general armament engineer Nicolas Cordier-Lallouet, deputy director of AID, emphasized the change in mindset within the ministry, particularly in risk-taking capacity. This evolution is part of a demanding geopolitical context requiring increased adaptation and reactivity. “Start-up innovations often result from sciences and technologies with ancient foundations that are part of research work started sometimes twenty to thirty years ago,” also noted the deputy director of AID. An analysis placing innovation within a broader framework.
Addressing the quantum theme, Yoanna-Reine Nowicki-Bringuier, head of the Defense Quantum Lab within the Defense Innovation Agency, led a dedicated debate on “quantum, new technological frontier of sovereignty”. Lively exchanges took place during this “strategic coffee” and with representatives from INRIA, Photonics Exail, and Quobly.
Patrick Girod, manager of “innovation acceleration Wargaming, RADAR, makers” within the Agency, presented the wargame in a space entirely dedicated to presenting this war game. A useful tool to “prepare our operational commitments” through “representations of competitive, challenging, and/or confrontational situations in an environment where participants make decisions and react to the consequences of these decisions” (according to the War Game Manual, August 2023, produced by the CICDE).
These different sequences and interventions illustrate the commitment of AID, a true conductor of the ministry’s innovation policy, serving the operational superiority of the armed forces. A privileged opportunity to recall that “defense is not only the business of the military; it is the business of the entire nation”.
