Defence events in Germany

Enforce Tac is the premier European procurement and partnership forum for the security and defence sector, bringing together credentialled decision-makers, budget holders, and ministry representatives who are actively shaping equipment and capability programmes. For SMEs and startups, a dedicated 'startups@Enforce Tac' area offers subsidised participation and direct access to prime contractors and institutional buyers at a single venue. The event's explosive growth—visitor numbers up 42% and exhibitor count up over 40% in 2026—reflects its rapidly rising strategic weight as Europe's central platform for networked security dialogue.

The conference offers a direct interface between frontline end-users, prime contractors and startups building combat-proven unmanned and autonomous systems, making it valuable for suppliers seeking early insight into evolving European procurement needs. Its emphasis on institutional adoption, supply-chain independence and the proposed EU drone wall signals concrete near-term demand relevant to SMEs and startups. The invitation-only format and institutional partners (Berlin Senate, Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub, Brave1) provide high-level access to decision-makers.

For defense SMEs and startups, this is one of the few European venues where hardware can be tested on a live runway in front of military operators and procurement officials in a single setting, compressing months of relationship-building into four days. Investors scouting pre-Series A European defense-tech companies will encounter the continent's most active builder community before most institutional channels do. The event directly feeds the EDTH-to-deployment pipeline that has already spun out companies from the hackathon circuit, making early presence here a meaningful competitive signal.

As the successor to the long-running Koblenzer IT-Tagung, the Bonner IT-Dialog is a focused access point to Bundeswehr requirement-owners (particularly the ZDigBw) and other public-sector decision-makers shaping Germany's defence-IT and resilience programmes. For SMEs and defence-tech startups, its showcase exhibition and networking with primes, agencies and research institutions offer visibility on where future procurement and capability priorities are heading. Its tight, high-level format makes it well suited to relationship-building rather than mass lead generation.