Since the NATO Lisbon summit in 2010, the NATO Missile Defence mission brings together Theater Defence and Alliance Territory Defence. The European nations collectively agreed to contribute to this new mission, the form of their participation being left to each nation to be assessed.
The emergence of new threats such as the maneuvering ballistic missiles and the high supersonic / hypersonic cruise missiles or hypersonic glide vehicles present new challenges to the missile defence capability.The emergence of these new threats is also an opportunity for Europe to contribute to and complement the NATO BMD mission, to share the burden.
Defence solutions have no choice but to address the full spectrum of threats. Beyond the obvious request of operational efficiency against each type of threat, cost is one of the main challenges for Defence. Sensors and effectors should therefore as much as possible be able to address simultaneously several threat categories. It raises daunting technological, engineering, and operational challenges. These issues remain at the forefront of the battle commanders’ concerns, as ballistic missiles and air threats are daily used, by state and non-state actors.
Therefore our Missile Defence challenges are now considered within the wider frame of IAMD and this will be the third edition of our conference under the new name “3AF Integrated Air and Missile Defence conference”, extending the Missile Defence conference spectrum to Air Defence as well.
The 3AF Integrated Air and Missile Defence conference is once again the perfect opportunity to continue the discussion on those issues, where international cooperation is key to meet the associated challenges: within NATO and the EU in Europe, in bilateral or multilateral approaches in other regions of the world.
The following questions will in particular be raised:
The 14th 3AF Integrated Air and Missile Defence conference will take place in Nice (France) from 07 to 09 December 2021. We invite the air and missile defence community to share and discuss air and missile defence challenges around the globe, reinforce ties and explore new ideas to promote air and missile defence solutions..
Defense solutions have no choice but to address the full spectrum of threats. Beyond the obvious request of operational efficiency against each type of threat, cost is one of the main challenges for Defense. Sensors and effectors should, do and shall therefore be able to address simultaneously several threat categories. It raises daunting technological, engineering and operational challenges. These issues remain at the forefront of the battle commanders concerns, as ballistic missiles and air threats are daily used, by state and non-state actors.
Once again a mix of technical and non-technical contributed and invited papers and status of the many existing IAMD programs will be presented, including VIPs’ talks and specific plenary sessions. Sponsored by industry, the conference includes an exhibition where companies will display their systems and technologies. It is an unrivalled 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 on IAMD challenges.
The Covid crisis has hit us all and we sincerely hope that you and your families are recovering from the shock. This crisis has also shown once again what our community knows well, the importance and the difficulties to anticipate and to be prepared. The conference is our modest contribution to this collective effort and we sincerely hope to see you again in December 2021 to continue our fruitful dialogue!
Yours Faithfully,
Emmanuel DELORME, Yannick DEVOUASSOUX and Luc DINI
14th 3AF International Conference on Integrated Air and Missile Defence IAMD14
Programme Committee co-chairs
CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS
PROGRAMME COMMITTEE MEMBERS