Defense Belongs with Autonomous Technologies — and at XPONENTIAL Europe

Just one year ago, we were facing a pivotal decision: we opened XPONENTIAL Europe to the defense application area – and the Supervisory Board approved the move by a large majority. At the time, it was still largely theoretical, because the inaugural edition of Europe’s leading trade fair for autonomous and uncrewed systems in 2025 focused on civilian applications. Defense was not an official part of the event and was neither reflected in its structure nor explicitly featured in the program. In my article “Why we need to talk about defense differently”, I outlined our reasons at the time. Together with our partners, we then worked intensively on the further development of the trade fair.

The closer XPONENTIAL Europe 2026 gets, the greater the public attention becomes. At the same time, the security policy environment has continued to deteriorate – the war in Ukraine is ongoing, and a new war has broken out in the Middle East. On the one hand, it is becoming increasingly clear that we cannot close our eyes to the reality of war, and that security and defense are issues that were neglected for too long in Europe and must now be taken seriously again. On the other hand, we are also being confronted with the horrors of war. That makes these questions even more important: How should we, as a society, respond? And how should we, at Messe Düsseldorf, respond?

Since our decision more than a year ago, we have examined these issues in depth. For us, the underlying facts have never been in dispute: the defense industry is undergoing a profound technological transformation – driven by uncrewed and autonomous systems, robotics, AI, and cybersecurity – and it needs platforms for exchange and knowledge transfer. More than ever, it is also true that uncrewed and autonomous systems are now very often dual-use technologies, meaning they can be used for both civilian and defense purposes. A separate view may be possible, but it is not a productive one.

From the outset, we knew that we could not retreat to the role of a mere connector and platform provider. That would not have lived up to our own standards – and in the end, it would have amounted to little more than the stance of a social media platform that avoids responsibility for content.

Unlike a social media platform, we deliberately shape the “content” of our events. We define the framework. That is why we are consistently deriving the integration of the defense application area from the profile of XPONENTIAL Europe and are consciously taking responsibility – starting with the fact that we are integrating the highly relevant topic of defense into the trade fair.

Equally critical is how this is done: an interdisciplinary advisory board made up of representatives from academia, industry, associations, and institutions supports us in providing expert classification and quality assurance. Defense-related topics at XPONENTIAL Europe are contextualized, discussed, and reflected upon. One element stands out in particular here: the comprehensive conference program, which includes keynotes on European security architecture, sovereignty, dual-use technologies, and international cooperation.

A year ago, we could also have decided to leave XPONENTIAL Europe unchanged. But such a step would have ignored the reality of technological and geopolitical developments. Exhibitors and visitors would certainly have criticized us for imposing an artificial limitation on a technology trade fair. It would also have harmed Düsseldorf as a business location. With the expanded XPONENTIAL Europe, we are sharpening Düsseldorf’s profile: as a responsible and transparent location for context and dialogue in a time of historic change.

The feedback from industry and politics speaks for itself: with 360 exhibitors, the number has nearly doubled compared with the previous year. Political participation is also high-level. It ranges from the patronage of Federal Minister of Transport Patrick Schnieder and the strategic partnership with the German Armed Forces to numerous visits by senior figures, including Sergiy Boyev, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine; Mona Neubaur, Minister for Economic Affairs of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia; Nathanael Liminski, Minister for Federal, European, International Affairs and Media of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia; British Ambassador Andrew Mitchell CMG; and Christoph Heusgen, who until a year ago chaired the Munich Security Conference.

A year ago, I titled my article “Why we need to talk differently about defense.” Today, I would rephrase that headline as “Why we need to talk about defense.” The reason is this: I see XPONENTIAL Europe not only as a platform for producers and users, for business development and professional exchange. It should also be an invitation to engage in a broader societal dialogue about defense in general. Because that is better than any form of polarization.