Objectives / Programme committee

In the recent years, we have witnessed an acceleration and expansion of the air and missile threats, through their use in the context of different conflicts. The combination of various threats – UAS, rockets, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and hypersonic missiles – is a reality in Ukraine, in the Middle-East and in the Arabic and Red Seas. This demonstrates the reality of high intensity scenarios where sophisticated – and expensive - weapons are operated together with or against more widespread and low cost civil and military technologies used in a very pragmatic and practical manner.
Outside conflicts, demonstration of force with ballistic, hypersonic or cruise missiles and UAS continue in different areas of the planet, with a strong increase in the past 6 years.
It is now clear that air and missile defence must be integrated and that quantity, performance, adaptability and interoperability are key requirements for defence architectures. Fighters and SBAMD in the land and sea domains need to combine their forces (Rational Surface Based Missile Defence includes the former GBAD and NBAD) to enhance collaborative defence, scale up AI based networked sensors capacities, increase fire power, extend flight domain and smart manoeuvrability of effectors, to face an enemy that can also mix fighters with missiles and UAS to adapt its tactics and saturate defences.
Linked to these developments, the air and missile defence landscape is pursuing its transformation with the emergence of new industrial and state actors.

The 17th 3AF Integrated Air and Missile Defence conference will take place in Copenhagen (Denmark) from May 24 to 26, 2027.

The air and missile defence community, policy makers, warfighters, procurement agencies and industry, has therefore an increasingly difficult challenge to anticipate likely evolutions and adapt as fast as possible to the current and evolving threat. In this context, production pace and supply chain robustness become predominant to satisfy the operational needs.
Industry and stake holders have to be inventive, propose fast evolutions of systems while looking to the longer term. The answer to the threat is not a unique and performant effector, or sensor or C2 … but the integration or interoperability of systems. Building blocks are being developed by Nations, on their own, in bilateral or multilateral cooperation, within NATO and the EU or through ad hoc initiatives. International cooperation is indeed key to address the technical, operational and budget challenges and build multidomain capabilities.

The 3AF Integrated Air and Missile Defence conference, which 16th edition took place in Thessaloniki in 2025 and gathered more than 200 experts from 14 countries, continues to back these efforts, providing a stage to share and promote collective technical, policy, and operational vision.

The 17th edition of IAMD Conference will take place from 24 to 26 May 2027 in Copenhagen and will host a mix of technical and non-technical sessions, presenting contributed and invited papers to discuss Integrated Air and Missile Defence challenges. VIPs will provide unique insights into IAMD policies and priorities, many existing IAMD programs will provide a status update, and specific plenary sessions will focus on some of the hot topics for the community. Supported by industry, the conference includes an exhibition where companies can display their systems and technologies.

It is a sound opportunity to meet customers, suppliers and decision-makers, to exchange facts and opinions, to initiate and develop business and to listen to papers presented by world experts meeting face to face on IAMD challenges.

We sincerely hope to see you again in May 2027 to continue our fruitful discussions!

Luc DINI, Thomas MERLIN & Pierre ROTY
17^th 3AF International Conference on Integrated Air and Missile Defence IAMD17
Programme Committee co-chairs

Programme committee