More than 200 innovators, military experts and end users from across Europe will begin testing new defence technologies in realistic conditions in Portugal from 28 September.
Over 40 companies, start-ups and innovation organisations are due to gather at the Santa Margarida Military Training Area for the EU OPEX campaign, the European Defence Agency (EDA) announced on Friday.
The OPEX campaign is an EDA-led programme that trials emerging technologies with armed forces and other military users in field conditions.
Systems being tested include unmanned platforms — such as aerial and ground drones — loitering munitions and electronic communications.
EU OPEX is being run jointly by the EDA and the Portuguese Army and will be integrated into Portugal’s national experimentation campaign, ARTEX 26.
Drones, supply runs and night-time target engagement
The first week will focus on stand-alone tests and single-domain missions, with scenarios becoming more complex later in the campaign and spanning multiple domains, according to the EDA.
In one set of planned scenarios, military drones will carry out reconnaissance and surveillance missions and feed real-time information to commanders in a hostile environment.
Unmanned ground and aerial systems will also be tasked with working together to transport supplies to troops on the front line.
Loitering munitions — weapons designed to hover over an area before striking a target — will be required to engage multiple targets at night.
The Portugal tests will bring together several initiatives, including BraveTech EU, an EU-Ukraine defence innovation programme, and the Sentinel Strike challenge, a competition focused on loitering munitions with five finalists competing for €1.8 million in prizes.
The programme is set to culminate in cross-domain field experiments on 7 and 8 October, followed by a “High Visibility Event” on 14 October.
