11th International Conference on Missile Defence, June 6th to 12th 2015

6th to 12th June, Palau de Congresso de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

http://missile-defence.com/

Objectives

By and large, the ballistic missile threat assessment is shared by NATO, its partners and its members’ allies. Thanks to technological and industrial improvements, the ballistic missile arsenal is increasing both in numbers and operational effectiveness in rogue and proliferating states. Instability is growing in some areas, and there is a concern that non-state actors may acquire sophisticated missiles with greater range and accuracy than the rockets currently in use. The use of missiles, ballistic and non ballistic is a fact in different regions of the globe.

Nations around the world are reacting by improving, developing or acquiring missile defence capabilities, alone or through alliances. In this context, international cooperation is indeed of great value to share the costs and benefits of these systems:

• The NATO BMD programme is under way, with an interim capability in place since 2012.
• The US EPAA, that will form the basis of the NATO architecture, will complete Phase 1 next year with the arrival of the first two Aegis ships in Rota, Spain and Phase 2 will be operational with the Aegis ashore deployment in Romania.
• Turkey and Poland have decided to acquire national Air & Missile defence capabilities through competition: US Patriot and French/Italian SAMP/T are candidates.
• Israel is improving its layered defence, with the David’s sling and Arrow 3 under development.
• The Gulf states have already bought or are considering the acquisition of missile defence capabilities
• In Asia, Japan is strengthening its missile defences while South Korea is considering implementing one, beyond the existing assets.
• India is developing its own upper layer capability in complement of the lower dual layer already developed.

We need to continue the dialogue to achieve a Missile Defence capability in NATO and in Europe, and deal with the difficulties ahead:

• How will NATO build on the interim capability to integrate EPAA phase 2 and other national contributions?
• Could the European Nations cooperate on DAMB with the objective to act as a force multiplier to the EPAA contribution ?
• Could there be a joint European effort, fostered by NATO’s smart defence initiative, or the call for a European defence? What will be the role of European industry? Is multisensor cooperation a winning theme for the “smart and collective” cooperation? Can we work out common standards?
• How will the situation evolve between NATO and its partners and neighbours?
• What are the new functionalities that the NATO BMC3I systems will need to implement and when? – How can we benefit from users, industry and research experience to be more efficient in capability development?
• How will missile defence developments across the globe affect the technological landscape? The competitive balance?
• How can the return of experience from the various developments of systems and technologies by the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia be shared and common efforts be initiated?

The 11^th 3AF Conference will build on the previous editions to address these questions and discuss the influencing factors of missile defence capability development in and outside Europe. Once again, a mix of technical and non-technical, contributed and invited papers, and status of the many existing BMD programmes will be presented, including VIPs’ talks and specific plenary sessions. Sponsored by industry, the conference includes an exhibition where companies will showcase their systems and technologies. It is an unrivalled opportunity to meet customers, suppliers and decision makers, to exchange facts and opinions, and to listen to papers presented by world experts in missile defence.

The next 3AF Missile Defence conference is planned from 9 to 12 June 2015 in Barcelona, Spain, and will bring new information and debate on this continuing challenge for Europe, European Industry and more generally for the international community.

We are looking forward to meeting you in June 2015 and to your contribution to our continuing dialogue!

For more information and to register: http://missile-defence.com/