Spain's third International Defence and Security Fair aims to have 400 exhibitors from 20 countries and around a hundred foreign delegations

The 2023 edition of FEINDEF dedicates a large leading space to startups

photo_camera PHOTO/Fundación FEINDEF - The Secretary of State for Defence, Amparo Valcarce, said in her presentation that FEINDEF is the door that opens new business opportunities to the world for Spanish defence companies.

The Secretary of State for Defence, Amparo Valcarce, was the main protagonist of the official presentation of the 3rd edition of the International Defence and Security Fair of Spain (FEINDEF), a biennial professional trade fair to be held on 17, 18 and 19 May 2023 at the Madrid Trade Fair Institution (IFEMA) under the slogan "The Defence of our Security". 

In front of an auditorium full of the sector's senior executives in Spain, important posts from the Army, the Navy and the Ministries of Defence, Interior, Industry, Foreign Affairs and Universities, the head of armaments and material, research, development and innovation policies described the FEINDEF show as "the best showcase" and "the gateway to the European and international market (...), opening up new business opportunities for our defence industry and our companies". 

Five months into her term of office, Amparo Valcarce made a whole series of arguments in favour of the Spanish defence industrial fabric, which "we must support" because "it plays a decisive role (...) it represents a key sector for the economy and investment, as well as driving progress". 

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She stressed that it is "fundamental" to obtain our own industrial developments in order to "achieve a sufficient level of sovereignty". If this is achieved, "it will allow us to successfully overcome the difficulties of the increasingly uncertain and complex scenarios that may arise".  

Amparo Valcarce, the political right-hand woman and a person of total confidence of the Minister Margarita Robles, has asked the group "to be able to take a firm leap towards internationalisation", and become "more competitive, autonomous and strategic", in order to take advantage of the synergies of the international sphere and "achieve the objectives shared with our European and Atlantic partners".

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A time to bet on the defence industry

With a draft defence budget of 12,825 million euros proposed to Parliament for 2023, he is pleased to have achieved a growth of 25.8%, "an undoubtedly historic increase, at the height of the historical circumstances we are living through", with which "we will have achieved a fundamental milestone: we will be at 1.2% of GDP". 

He considers that the increase is "firm and gradual" and understands that the industry "has the capacity to absorb all this investment", especially the 4,902 million that are dedicated to the so-called Special Modernisation Programmes. To achieve this, the Ministry is obliged "to increase its leadership, and its own - in reference to the industrial fabric - to enable its companies to absorb this extremely important investment effort". 

Defence wants the sector's companies to be integrated into Spain's industrial and technological base. It is time to commit to the defence industry (...) we have to show our muscle, demonstrate our strength as a driving force for the Spanish economy as a whole," he said, "as an indispensable element in the creation of employment and prosperity in the country". 

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She described as "clear and certain" the new investment cycle that is opening up until 2029, when Spain's defence budget will reach 2% of GDP, as President Sánchez promised his Atlantic partners at the NATO summit at the end of June. To achieve this, Valcarce has appealed twice to obtain "the consensus and support of the vast majority of parliamentary groups and the support of the whole of Spanish society". 

As president of the FEINDEF Foundation, the organiser of the Fair, the former Minister of Defence, founder and first president of the Spanish Association of Defence, Security, Aeronautics and Space Technology Companies (TEDAE), Julián García Vargas, stressed that Spain has "very competitive and leading defence and security companies, capable of participating in all European projects and even leading them". And he remarked that, if the 2021 show was one of consolidation, "the 2023 show will be one of growth". 

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Immediate and future needs identified

He confirmed that the exhibition area will cover 40,000 square metres, and that the expectations are to welcome "400 exhibitors from 20 countries, a hundred international delegations and some 20,000 visitors". In relation to the new features of the 2023 edition, García Vargas said that "the main one is the Startup Space, where emerging companies with great imagination and inventiveness will be able to show their capabilities to more consolidated companies and public administrations". 

From his knowledge of the sector, the former Minister of Defence argued that the future of the national defence fabric "depends on collaboration with other European companies in the naval, aeronautical, land vehicle, space and cyber fields, as well as in logistics, secure radio communications, maintenance and combat equipment and protection".  

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With regard to the additional contribution of 2 billion euros to the defence budgets for the current year and the 12.825 billion euros planned for 2023, both amounts will translate into "more capabilities and better-equipped armed forces". The Army, Air and Space and the Navy have defined "the major programmes for the future and very clearly identified their immediate needs so as not to lose capabilities which, in many cases, are on the verge of weakening", he warned. 

Asked how he sees the future of defence in Spain in the context of Europe and the world, the former minister replied that the sector "is in a position to meet all the needs of the Spanish Armed Forces in the medium term, in cooperation with other European companies".

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But he qualified that it will be possible, "provided that the stability of the budgetary effort announced by the President of the Government is maintained, the R&D support to companies and, above all, our participation in the common projects of the European Union and NATO". If this is achieved, the sector will be "a key driver of technology, employment and exports, as well as ensuring the support of our Armed Forces and guaranteeing our national security and sovereignty". 

Marc Murtra, president of Indra, main sponsor of FEINDEF 2023, also took part in the presentation. In his opinion, the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have accelerated three trends. Firstly, "technology, which is key to security". Secondly, "security and defence, without which there is no business, no civil society, no sustainability, no family, no life". And he stressed that in order to have sovereignty and to be able to make decisions at the national level "you have to have 'home-grown technology'.

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