Domestic development for strengthening collective European defence

The close to 400 participants from more than 20 countries came to Bálna Defence Center to discuss current issues in space and defence industry, seek and offer funding and commercial opportunities and make their cooperation even more efficient in the fields of research and innovation. Zsolt Kutnyánszky informed the participants about the development of the Hungarian Defence Forces and the Hungarian government’s plans concerning the national defence and military development program.

“The Hungarian Defence Forces’ capability development and the commissioning of new equipment must be in alignment with the NATO Capability Targets” – emphasized the state secretary, adding that we are building a complex system of defence with a lot of components, so the further strengthening of domestic defence industry has outstanding significance.

“In creating our sovereignty, it is an important element that the defence capacities moving to Hungary be more than mere production and assembly lines; besides them, defence research, development and innovation should also appear. This is the only way to ensure that we are substantial contributors to the rebuilding of European defence industry. This way, we can retain our engineers and researchers and can offer them a meaningful career path within the defence sector here in Hungary” – declared Zsolt Kutnyánszky.

Also among the speakers of the conference was National Armaments Director MoD Deputy State Secretary for Force Development and Innovation László Deme. In his presentation, he told the audience about the workings and effects of the national armaments management system.

Professional forums organized in Hungary and abroad such as the Space & Defense Summit held in Budapest are very important for the establishment of a competitive Hungarian defence industry formulated as a governmental objective. The domestic and foreign defence industry companies and manufacturers showed significant interest in the conference, and many of them came to attend the event with their own stands.

Dr. Áron Fellegi, Chairman of the Board of HypeX Consulting Zrt. – the organizer of the Budapest event – said that the objective of the Space & Defense Summit was to create a platform for governmental decision-makers, market players and international experts which enables them to share with each other their expertise necessary for the development of Hungarian defence and space industry.

As attested by the presentations delivered at the conference, the national defence and warfare of the future will predominantly have a technological character, and a significant portion of it will be implemented with support from assets operating in space. Thus, within defence industry, space industry will become more and more important to each country.