One month before FEINDEF, Spain's International Defence and Security Fair

The third edition of the International Defence and Security Fair of Spain or FEINDEF is less than 30 days away from opening its doors at the Institución Ferial de Madrid, IFEMA. 

The management team of the Foundation that promotes the biennial professional trade fair is chaired by the former Minister of Defence Julián García Vargas and headed by its Director General, Ramón Pérez Alonso. Both are overjoyed to have far exceeded the number of exhibitors for 2021 and to have reserved all the exhibition space in halls 8 and 10 at IFEMA, totalling 40,000 square metres. 

The organisation describes the 2023 edition, which will take place on 17, 18 and 19 May, as an "unprecedented success", and in which "the number of companies and institutions registered is around 450 from 25 nations". But FEINDEF 23 aspires to more, and in the time remaining until its inauguration there is the expectation of reaching half a thousand stands, or of coming within a very short distance. 

FEINDEF is the most important exhibition in the Spanish defence and security sector and the only one with effective institutional support from the Ministry of Defence. Each new edition means a greater number of exhibitors, which, for its organisers, is proof that the Madrid fair, with each passing year, "is becoming more and more recognised on an international level and among society in general". 

Looking to the immediate future, FEINDEF aspires to position itself as one of the essential events on the European calendar of armament, military material and dual-use security equipment and applications shows. The fact that "more than 70 international delegations" have already confirmed their attendance at this year's event, to which more will be added in the last four weeks, "a total of around one hundred", according to the organisers.

In order to continue to grow, the event must be the showcase for the new programmes to be addressed by the Spanish government's successive defence budgets, which, barring any imponderables, should show gradual growth until they reach 2% of GDP in 2029, which is what was anticipated last June by President Pedro Sánchez. 

One of the attractions of a show such as FEINDEF is to publicise new contracts, procurement programmes and include new developments in the field of weapons systems, platforms, products, services and initiatives. And its parallel cycle of conferences must be seasoned with presentations and current debates led by senior government officials and industry executives in the sector.

This is how FEINDEF sees it, and among the new features to be shown at this year's exhibition will be a star that is sure to attract the attention of both locals and visitors alike. For the first time in Spain, the American mobile rocket and missile launching system HIMARS, which is the scourge of Russian troops in Ukraine, will be on display. 

In terms of rotary-wing aircraft, the US Army will bring to Madrid a Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and the US Navy a Sikorsky MH-60R, the model of anti-submarine aircraft of which the Spanish Navy has recently acquired eight units. Also on display will be an NH-90 in navalised version from the Netherlands Navy and an Airbus H-135 from the Guardia Civil, of the 36 that the Benemérita and the National Police have purchased together in the same package.

At the national institutional level, the Ministry of Defence, the Spanish Army, the Spanish Air Force, the Spanish Space and Air Force and the Spanish Navy will be showcasing their main capabilities. The Ministry of the Interior, together with the National Police, the Department of Industry, the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA) and the Civil Guard will also have their respective official pavilions.

The foreign countries with the largest number of companies attending are the United States, Germany and France. In the case of our northern neighbour, Dassault Aviation will attend the Madrid event for the first time, and even its President and CEO, Eric Trappier, is expected to be present.

The opening ceremony of FEINDEF 23 will be presided over on 17 May by the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, and will include speeches by the President of the FEINDEF Foundation, the Secretary of State for Defence, Amparo Valcarce, and the aforementioned former minister, Julián García Vargas. 

The 2023 edition incorporates the space christened Innova for Def & Sec, which aspires to become "a national and international benchmark in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship" and the annual meeting point for entrepreneurs and innovative companies interested in the defence and security market.

As part of the initiative, the third edition of the FEINDEF Foundation Entrepreneurship Awards has been launched. Its main sponsor is the public shipyard Navantia, which will evaluate the two most innovative dual-use technology projects in the field of space systems, drones, autonomous vehicles, new materials, alternative energies, sustainability, as well as information technologies, communications and cybersecurity.  

Around twenty start-ups have booked their own stands and many more are grouped together in pavilions sponsored by the autonomous regions of Andalusia, Asturias, Madrid and Murcia. Also represented will be Cordoba, where the army's new major logistics base will be built, and the Madrid town of Getafe, which has become the major industrial headquarters of Airbus in Spain.