Defense News’ editorial coverage of this event can be found here.

From naval programs in the U.K. as well as mainland Europe, to dueling alliances for next-gen fighter development, bold defense investments proliferate among NATO allies – contributing to a 5 percent increase by Europe in military spending in 2019. This panel looked at the priority investments among NATO allies, how different nations are aligning to leverage budgets and industrial capabilities in air, land, sea and space, and the threat landscape influencing decision making.

The emergence of an official Space Force in December 2019 paved the road for what will increasingly become the most contested domain of warfare. Satellite communications and anti satellite capabilities, as well as new ‘space weapons,’ are all increasingly critical to military development among the US and allies – as well as adversaries. This panel examined the latest in priorities for investment in the space domain, and how a new command, with industry, the Air Force, and the other defense services, will work cooperatively to enable space Dominance.

Near-peer adversaries are exploiting blind spots and using non-traditional approaches to counter previously traditional strategies. Perhaps nowhere is this challenge more acute than in the naval domain. What can the United States and its allies do to combat grey zone threats and advances in seas across the world? How should militaries rethink their investments in platforms, hardware and IT and finally, how could these investments and change in strategy lead to advantages in the future?

Even as U.S. and some allies continue to ponder the best approach to truly harness the power of a Joint Strike Fighter, others are moving forward with ambitious air acquisition plans. There’s Team Tempest, rallying together for the United Kingdom to develop the technologies needed for a next-gen future combat aircraft. There’s the Future Combat Air System program, uniting Germany and France. And there’s the contentious battle to deliver to Finland superior aircraft under its multi-billion dollar fighter program. This panel dug into the priority air capability requirements emerging, and the shifting regional landscape of air power across Europe and beyond.

From prototyping efforts from the Army Futures Command to experiments and rapid development tactics at the Air Force, new approaches to modernization are taking shape across the Department of Defense to leverage the best of what industry has to offer and ensure advanced technologies can filter more quickly to the war fighter. This panel examined some of the most ambitious modernization efforts underway by the services – not only in terms of the promised capabilities, but the methods used to get there.

Perhaps no segment of defense is quite as globally entwined as missile defense, with threats posed by the most aggressive of adversaries driving investment decisions across domains by the U.S. and Europe, and all but demanding system integration allies and industry players. And yet there have been fits and starts as allies try to decide what takes precedent – investment in modernization of traditional missile defense capabilities, or investment in future tech to not just keep pace but outmatch advancements happening in North Korea, Russia and China. This panel examined the balancing of today’s requirements against tomorrow’s demands – and how the U.S. and allies are sharing the burden of one of the most critical pillars of global security.

The battle is on: As China and Russia continue to advance their capabilities in artificial intelligence, unmanned technologies, and other next-gen technologies that will shape the future battlefield, the U.S. and allies are prioritizing investments and tactics to remain ahead. Who will dominate? And how can democracies of the west excel against totalitarian governments that wield more control over commercial development? This panel examined the state of play for the most critical and advanced technologies of modern warfare.