The European Defence Agency (EDA) will hold a second EU Defence Innovation Operational Experimentation Campaign in 2026 — alongside an earlier event in Portugal — with Switzerland set to host from 16 to 20 November at the Bure military area in the Jura region.
The Switzerland event will take place at a major Swiss Army facility and is intended to provide an additional environment for the agency’s testing activities, the EDA announced on Friday.
“Innovation creates defence value only when it is tested, trusted, and ultimately used by the military. Operational experimentation allows us to turn promising technology into proven military capability,” Nathalie Guichard, the EDA’s Director for Research, Technology & Innovation, said.
Major General Rolf André Siegenthaler, Commander of the Swiss Armed Forces Logistics Organisation, said Switzerland hosting EU OPEX 2026 reflected the “strong interest and commitment” of the Swiss armed forces to be part of the EDA and EU innovation ecosystem.
Focus on unmanned systems for logistics
The Swiss campaign will test unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) in logistics operations in an urban environment, the EDA said.
Planned activities include trials of drone and ground robot support for delivering goods to deployed units, evacuating injured personnel, and conducting reconnaissance to improve situational awareness.
The 2026 Switzerland event follows an updated administrative arrangement agreed in 2025 between EU member states and Switzerland to expand defence co-operation in the EDA framework, and Switzerland’s participation in the first EU OPEX campaign held in Italy in summer 2025.
The EU OPEX campaigns sit within the EDA’s Hub for European Defence Innovation, a programme that runs experimentation to help move emerging technologies into military use.
