Article around the theme “Sovereignty, Alliances and Partnerships”, this edition is part of a strategic context degraded by the return of war in Europe and the evolution of threats on the battlefield.
Over these three days, debates and exchanges took place around the major contemporary strategic challenges, with a packed program bringing together experts, military personnel, researchers, public decision-makers, and industry representatives. In this context, the Defense Innovation Agency (AID) took part in several major interventions aimed at enriching reflection and raising collective awareness of these different challenges.
The intervention of Armament General Engineer Patrick Aufort, director of the AID, on “artificial intelligence, defense and sovereignty” allowed for an exploration of the crucial issues surrounding this emerging technology in the defense field. A roundtable with representatives from Naval Group, Airbus, Safran.AI, Capgemini, and the Artificial Intelligence For Industry chair of Télécom Paris, IPP. The AID director highlighted the specificities of using this dual technology in the defense environment, also addressing its usage constraints, which “constitute additional barriers”.
During a roundtable with French Tech Mission, the Directorate of Economic Diplomacy of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Sienna, Firepoint, and Destinus on the theme of “innovation facing the challenges of high intensity”, Armament General Engineer Nicolas Cordier-Lallouet, deputy director of the AID, emphasized the change in mindset within the ministry, particularly in the ability to take risks. This evolution occurs in a demanding geopolitical context requiring increased adaptability and reactivity. “Start-up innovations often result from sciences and technologies whose foundations are ancient and are part of research work initiated sometimes twenty to thirty years ago,” also emphasized the deputy director of the AID. An analysis allowing innovation to be placed in a broader context.
Addressing the thematic of quantum, Yoanna-Reine Nowicki-Bringuier, head of the Defense Quantum Lab within the Defense Innovation Agency, led a dedicated debate on “quantum, the new technological frontier of sovereignty”. Lively exchanges took place during this “strategic coffee” and with representatives from INRIA, Photonics Exail, and Quobly.
Patrick Girod, manager of “innovation acceleration Wargaming, RADAR, makers”, within the Agency, presented the wargame in a space entirely dedicated to presenting this war game. A useful tool to “prepare our operational commitments” thanks to “representations of competitive, contestation and/or confrontation situations in an environment where participants make decisions and react to the consequences of these decisions” (according to the War Game Manual, August 2023, produced by the CICDE).
These different sequences and interventions illustrate the commitment of the AID, a true conductor of the ministry’s innovation policy, at the service of the operational superiority of the forces. A privileged opportunity to recall that “defense is not only a matter for the military; it is the business of the whole nation”.
