Symposium “Next in Defence: Autonomy, Space & Industrial Readiness” | September 22

Narrative

The symposium, held as part of Estonian Defence Week, brings together Estonian and allied defence industry policymakers, investors, and end-users, as well as defence and internal security partners. The aim is to identify opportunities and accelerate real cooperation projects, investments, and potential business agreements.

The 2026
Focus is on three closely interconnected axes: developments in autonomous systems, the space domain as the “backbone” of next-generation capabilities, and defence industry readiness for growing demand.

The core question of the symposium is: how to integrate autonomous technologies into future capability development and space technologies into defence capability that moves from rapid prototype to production and on to the end user.

08:30 - 09:00

Registration and morning coffee

Duration: 30 min

09:00 - 10:20 | BLOCK 1: Policy and Capability Development

Opening Block: Strategic Framework (Creative Hub, main hall)

09:00 - 09:10

Moderator’s opening remarks: “Next in Defence: AI, Space & Resilience”

Duration: 10 min

Johannes Tralla

Moderator and journalist, Estonian Public Broadcasting

09:10 - 09:20

Defence Industry Association (EDIA/EKTL) Board Chair Taavi Veskimägi – industry priorities 2026: localisation, investments, end-user access

Duration: 10 min

Taavi Veskimägi

Estonian Defence & Aerospace Industry Association AD2024 Founder member, EDIA chairman of the Council

09:20 - 09:40

Capability development, procurement, cooperation with allies

Duration: 20 min

Minister of Defence of Estonia: Hanno Pevkur

Minister of Defence of Estonia

09:40 - 09:50

Cooperation between the Estonian Defence Forces and the Defence Industry: A New Model and Future Prospects

Duration: 10 min

Maj Ivo Peets, PhD

Commander of the Future Capabilities and Innovation, Estonian Defence Forces

09:45 - 09:50

NATO and Estonia

Duration: 5 min

Kristjan Prikk

Ambassador of Estonia at NATO

09:50 - 10:00

Scaling European industrial and defence capability

Duration: 10 min

Andrius Kubilius

European Commission, Commissioner for Defence and Space

10:00 - 10:10

From requirement to contract: procurement and capability development priorities, industrial cooperation practices

Duration: 10 min

Estonian Centre for Defence Investments (ECDI)

10:10 - 10:20

NATO DIANA Estonian Accelerator

Duration: 10 min

Kadri Tammai

Regional Director of NATO DIANA

10:20 - 10:30

Break & EXPO

Duration: 10 min

10:30 - 12:00 | BLOCK 2: Autonomy and AI: From Prototype to Solution

AI in the Defence Industry (Creative Hub, main hall)

10:30 - 11:00

AI-to-Advantage: how to bring artificial intelligence from prototype to operational capability (safely, reliably, scalably)

Duration: 30 min

Intro speech & firesite chat

Peter Sarlin

Founder and Chairman of Foundation PS and PostScriptum, the cradle of NestAI, Qutwo and Silo AI

11:15 - 12:00

Panel 1: AI and Autonomy in Practice “Trusted autonomy in contested environments”

Duration: 45 min

Topics:

verification/validation,
standardisation/interoperability,
integration with NATO systems,
data sharing.

Arno Vaik

CEO of Threod Systems AS

Sven Weizenegger

CEO of German Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub

Karl Brew or Simon Briggs

TEKEVER

12:00 - 13:00

Lunch & VIP Lunch

Duration: 60 min

Lunch in the food tent and in Õuetorn.

13:00 - 13:45 | BLOCK 3: Baltic Sea Region Defence Industries

13:00 - 13:45

Scaling regional defence industry: supply chains, investments, common standards and export support

Duration: 45 min

Nordic-Baltic 8 Industry Ministers Panel (Creative Hub, main hall)

Scaling regional defence industry: supply chains, investments, common standards and export support.

13:45-14:30 BLOCK 4: Space

Space & Defence (main hall)

13:45 - 14:00

Space industry possibilities by Airbus Defence and Space

Duration: 15 min

14:00 - 14:10

Break

Duration: 10 min

14:00 - 14:15

Space for Defence: satellite data, communications and resilience (dual-use) in Europe

Duration: 15 min

Keynote: Pascal Legai

ESA European Space Agency, Senior Security Adviser to ESA DG, Director General’s Services

14:15 - 14:30

Space Cyber Security Ecosystem in Estonia

Duration: 15 min

Paul Liias

Head of Space Policy and Technology for Estonia, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

14:30 - 14:45

Break & EXPO

Duration: 15 min

14:30 - 15:00

Integrating innovation into the defence industry: from problem to integration

Duration: 30 min

14:45 - 16:00 | BLOCK 5: Defence Industry Readiness

Creative Hub, main hall

Regional industrial cooperation: how to bring foreign partners to Estonia/Nordics and Baltics to manufacture/develop.
Investor perspective: defence technology funds, risk, growth, procurement and export logic.
Integrating innovation into the defence industry: from problem to integration.
What measures accelerate industry-government cooperation?: the goal of changing defence procurement principles must be flexibility, speed, and supply chain security.
How to involve industry in capability development from the start?: Cooperation must take place already in the early stage of capability development.