Where are IDEX and NAVDEX held?

Both IDEX and NAVDEX are held in Abu Dhabi, ARE.

What kind of event is IDEX and NAVDEX?

IDEX and NAVDEX are co-located international exhibitions focusing on defense technology and maritime security, respectively.

International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) and Naval Defence & Maritime Security Exhibition (NAVDEX) 2027

Name: International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) and Naval Defence & Maritime Security Exhibition (NAVDEX) 2027
Start: 2027-01-21T00:00:00Z
End: 2027-01-25T00:00:00Z
Location: Abu Dhabi

Jan 21–25, 2027Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesIn-person

Registration open

The International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) and Naval Defence & Maritime Security Exhibition (NAVDEX) are set to convene in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. These co-located events serve as a significant platform for showcasing the latest innovations in defense technology and maritime security. The exhibitions attract a global audience of industry leaders, government officials, and military personnel, fostering discussions and collaborations on critical defense and security challenges.

Committees & topics

Topics
Defence Technologies and the Next-Generation Arms Race · Naval Defence in a Contested Maritime Era · Maritime Security and the Protection of Global Sea Lanes · Artificial Intelligence in Warfare · Space Warfare and the Militarisation of Orbit · Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) Defence · Sustainable Energy in Defence

Why it matters

IDEX and NAVDEX are pivotal events for understanding the evolving landscape of global defense and maritime security. They offer a unique opportunity to observe emerging trends in military hardware, cybersecurity, and strategic defense doctrines. The exhibitions are not merely trade shows; they are forums where nations articulate their security priorities and where the future of defense cooperation is often shaped. The substantial commitment from previous exhibitors underscores the events' importance as a marketplace and a strategic gathering point.

The location in Abu Dhabi, ARE, positions these exhibitions at the crossroads of significant geopolitical interests. The region's strategic importance, coupled with ongoing security concerns, ensures that the discussions and technologies presented at IDEX and NAVDEX have immediate and far-reaching implications for international relations and stability. The events provide a barometer for assessing the direction of defense spending and technological development across various nations, influencing regional power balances and global security dynamics.

How to prepare

To effectively engage with the complexities of IDEX and NAVDEX, a robust understanding of the various stakeholders is essential. Utilizing frameworks such as the Stakeholder Mapping Workshop can help identify key players, including national delegations, defense contractors, and international organizations. Analyzing their interests and influence through Dynamic Analysis will reveal potential alliances and points of contention.

Furthermore, understanding the Hidden Stakeholders in the defense industry, such as research institutions and non-governmental organizations, can provide a more comprehensive picture of the forces shaping policy and technology. Developing tailored Engagement Strategies for different stakeholder groups will be crucial for navigating the diverse perspectives and achieving diplomatic objectives. Given the international nature of these events, an awareness of Gender Dynamics Across Cultures within defense and security contexts can also offer valuable insights into communication and negotiation styles.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 6 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

United Arab Emirates

Host and significant buyer of defense technology, aiming to enhance national security and defense capabilities.

Role in topic

As the host nation, ARE plays a central role in facilitating international defense cooperation and showcasing its own growing defense industry. The country is a major procurer of advanced military systems, reflecting its strategic security needs and its ambition to become a regional hub for defense innovation.

United States

Leading defense technology provider and strategic partner, seeking to maintain its influence and market share.

Role in topic

The USA is a dominant force in the global defense market, consistently presenting cutting-edge technologies at IDEX and NAVDEX. Its participation is crucial for maintaining strategic alliances and influencing defense procurement decisions in the region and beyond.

China

Emerging defense technology exporter, aiming to expand its global market presence and demonstrate its capabilities.

Role in topic

CHN utilizes these exhibitions to showcase its rapidly advancing defense industry, including both conventional and advanced military systems. Its presence signifies its growing ambition to become a significant global player in defense exports and to challenge traditional market leaders.

Russia

Established defense exporter, seeking to maintain traditional markets and introduce new military hardware.

Role in topic

RUS is a long-standing supplier of military equipment to various nations. Its participation at IDEX and NAVDEX is vital for securing existing contracts, exploring new markets, and demonstrating its latest defense innovations, particularly in areas like air defense and naval systems.

United Kingdom

Key European defense industry player, focusing on advanced technology and strategic partnerships.

Role in topic

The GBR defense industry is a significant participant, offering high-tech solutions in aerospace, naval, and land defense. Its presence at these events is important for fostering international collaborations and securing export opportunities, particularly in specialized defense sectors.

India

Growing defense market and aspiring defense manufacturer, seeking technology transfer and joint ventures.

Role in topic

IND represents a substantial market for defense imports while simultaneously working to bolster its indigenous defense manufacturing capabilities. Its participation at IDEX and NAVDEX is often focused on exploring partnerships, acquiring advanced technologies, and showcasing its own defense production advancements.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Defence Technologies and the Next-Generation Arms Race

Defence technology has shifted dramatically since the end of the Cold War, moving from platform-centric procurement toward networked, software-defined, and increasingly autonomous systems. The post-2014 Russian operations in Ukraine, the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, and the full-scale war in Ukraine since 2022 demonstrated the battlefield impact of cheap drones, loitering munitions, electronic warfare, and commercial satellite imagery, prompting NATO members and Gulf states alike to accelerate modernisation. The United States' Replicator initiative, China's military-civil fusion strategy, and European efforts under the European Defence Fund and PESCO illustrate a global pivot toward attritable mass, AI-enabled targeting, and resilient supply chains for critical components such as semiconductors and rare earths. The core dispute centres on how to regulate dual-use innovation without surrendering strategic advantage. Export control regimes such as the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Missile Technology Control Regime, and US/EU controls on advanced chips have hardened, while emerging suppliers including the UAE, Türkiye, South Korea, and Israel have captured significant market share in drones, air defence, and precision munitions. States now debate whether existing arms-control instruments can keep pace with hypersonics, quantum sensing, directed-energy weapons, and AI-augmented command systems, and whether transparency measures such as the UN Register of Conventional Arms remain fit for purpose.

Key players

Naval Defence in a Contested Maritime Era

Naval competition has returned as a central feature of international security after three decades in which Western navies dominated the global commons largely unchallenged. China's PLA Navy is now the world's largest by hull count, with three operational aircraft carriers and expanding blue-water reach, while Russia retains a capable, if degraded, submarine force. The United States and its allies have responded through AUKUS, expanded forward deployments in the Indo-Pacific, and renewed investment in undersea warfare, frigates, and unmanned surface and subsurface vessels. In the Gulf and Indian Ocean, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and India have invested heavily in surface combatants, mine countermeasures, and coastal defence to secure energy exports and chokepoints. The disputes are both doctrinal and territorial. The South China Sea remains contested despite the 2016 arbitral award against China's nine-dash line, the Black Sea has become a live laboratory for asymmetric naval warfare following Ukraine's degradation of the Russian fleet using uncrewed surface vessels, and the Red Sea has seen unprecedented attacks on commercial shipping by Houthi forces since late 2023. Debates now focus on fleet design balance between exquisite platforms and unmanned mass, interpretation of UNCLOS in grey-zone confrontations, and the legal status of autonomous naval systems.

Key players

Maritime Security and the Protection of Global Sea Lanes

Roughly 80% of global trade by volume moves by sea, and recent years have exposed the fragility of that system. Somali piracy peaked between 2008 and 2012, prompting Operation Atalanta and Combined Task Force 151. Since 2019, attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman, the seizure of vessels by Iran, and especially the Houthi missile and drone campaign against Red Sea shipping from late 2023 have forced major carriers to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope, raising costs and emissions. The Black Sea grain corridor, sabotage of subsea cables and pipelines such as Nord Stream, and disputes over illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing have widened the definition of maritime security beyond piracy. The legal backbone remains the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, complemented by the IMO's regulatory regime and regional frameworks such as the Djibouti Code of Conduct and ReCAAP. Core disputes include freedom of navigation operations through contested waters, the legality of interdictions in the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz, responsibility for protecting subsea infrastructure, and how to apportion costs of convoy and escort operations such as EU Operation Aspides and US-led Prosperity Guardian.

Key players

Artificial Intelligence in Warfare

Military applications of AI have moved rapidly from research to deployment. Targeting-decision support systems have been reported in use in Ukraine and Gaza, autonomous loitering munitions such as the Kargu-2 have been documented in Libya, and major powers are integrating AI into intelligence fusion, logistics, electronic warfare, and command-and-control. The 2023 US-led Political Declaration on Responsible Military Use of AI and Autonomy, China's position papers at the CCW Group of Governmental Experts, and the REAIM summits hosted by the Netherlands and South Korea reflect competing visions: voluntary norms versus a legally binding instrument on lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). The core dispute concerns meaningful human control, accountability for algorithmic decisions in armed conflict, and verification. Civil-society coalitions and a majority of UN General Assembly states have called for negotiations on a treaty; major military powers prefer non-binding principles to preserve operational flexibility. Cross-cutting issues include bias and reliability of training data, the use of commercial large-language models in defence ministries, and the risk of AI-enabled escalation in nuclear command-and-control, which the US and China have tentatively agreed to keep under human authority.

Key players

Space Warfare and the Militarisation of Orbit

Outer space has become a contested warfighting domain. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans weapons of mass destruction in orbit but does not prohibit conventional anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, and four states — the United States, Russia, China, and India — have demonstrated kinetic ASAT capability, with Russia's 2021 test creating a major debris field. Russia's reported development of a nuclear ASAT capability, raised by US officials in 2024, has heightened concern that Article IV could be breached. Meanwhile, commercial constellations such as Starlink have shown decisive battlefield utility in Ukraine, blurring the line between civilian and military space assets. Negotiations on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) have been deadlocked in the Conference on Disarmament for decades. A 2022 US-led moratorium on destructive direct-ascent ASAT testing has been endorsed by over 35 states but rejected by Russia and China, who counter-propose a draft treaty (PPWT) that Western states view as unverifiable. Open questions include rules of behaviour for rendezvous and proximity operations, protection of dual-use commercial assets in conflict, debris mitigation, and the applicability of international humanitarian law to space operations.

Key players

Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) Defence

The CBRNE threat landscape combines legacy state programmes with new risks from non-state actors and emerging technologies. The Chemical Weapons Convention (1997) and Biological Weapons Convention (1975) provide the normative framework, but enforcement has been strained by confirmed chemical weapons use in Syria, Novichok attacks in Salisbury (2018) and against Alexei Navalny (2020), and persistent concerns about North Korean and Iranian programmes. The BWC still lacks a verification protocol, a gap underscored by debates over biosafety governance after COVID-19. Nuclear risks have risen with Russian rhetoric during the war in Ukraine, the expansion of China's arsenal, and the collapse of arms-control architecture including the INF Treaty and effective New START implementation. For defence ministries, CBRNE preparedness now spans detection, decontamination, medical countermeasures, and protection of critical infrastructure against radiological dispersal devices and improvised explosives. The 1540 Committee under the UN Security Council addresses non-state proliferation, while the OPCW and IAEA carry the verification burden for states. Disputes centre on attribution of chemical attacks, the future of the JCPOA framework with Iran, the security of nuclear facilities in conflict zones such as Zaporizhzhia, and how to govern dual-use advances in synthetic biology and AI-assisted molecular design.

Key players

Sustainable Energy in Defence

Armed forces are among the largest institutional consumers of fossil fuels: the US Department of Defense alone has historically been the single largest organisational emitter of greenhouse gases. Fuel logistics are also an operational vulnerability — convoy attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrated the human and financial cost of moving diesel to forward bases. In response, NATO adopted a Climate Change and Security Action Plan in 2021 and a methodology for measuring military emissions, while the US, UK, France, and Germany have published defence sustainability strategies covering electrified vehicles, microgrids, sustainable aviation fuel, and nuclear micro-reactors for bases. The debate has both operational and normative dimensions. Operationally, electrification and on-site renewables can reduce logistics tails and signature, but battery supply chains depend on critical minerals concentrated in a few states. Normatively, military emissions remain largely exempt from mandatory reporting under the Paris Agreement, and developing states argue that defence decarbonisation must not come at the expense of climate finance commitments. Gulf states, including the UAE which hosted COP28, are positioning themselves as testbeds for solar-powered bases, green hydrogen, and sustainable naval fuels, linking defence modernisation to broader energy-transition strategies.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) and Naval Defence & Maritime Security Exhibition (NAVDEX) 2027.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Arming an archipelago: Is time running out for Europe's oldest DMZ? | Euronews

Comprehensive approach to security: Federal Council launches consultation on Switzerland's security policy strategy

Ukraine Drone Strikes Crimea Power Grid

Georgia Considers Position in New South Caucasus Transit Era - Jamestown

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

United Arab Emirates January 2027

By committee

Frequently asked questions

International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) and Naval Defence & Maritime Security Exhibition (NAVDEX) 2027

Jan 21–25, 2027Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Defence Technologies and the Next-Generation Arms Race · Naval Defence in a Contested Maritime Era · Maritime Security and the Protection of Global Sea Lanes · Artificial Intelligence in Warfare · Space Warfare and the Militarisation of Orbit · Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) Defence · Sustainable Energy in Defence

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 6 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

United Arab Emirates

Host and significant buyer of defense technology, aiming to enhance national security and defense capabilities.

Role in topic

United States

Leading defense technology provider and strategic partner, seeking to maintain its influence and market share.

Role in topic

China

Emerging defense technology exporter, aiming to expand its global market presence and demonstrate its capabilities.

Role in topic

Russia

Established defense exporter, seeking to maintain traditional markets and introduce new military hardware.

Role in topic

United Kingdom

Key European defense industry player, focusing on advanced technology and strategic partnerships.

Role in topic

India

Growing defense market and aspiring defense manufacturer, seeking technology transfer and joint ventures.

Role in topic

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Defence Technologies and the Next-Generation Arms Race

Key players

Naval Defence in a Contested Maritime Era

Key players

Maritime Security and the Protection of Global Sea Lanes

Key players

Artificial Intelligence in Warfare

Key players

Space Warfare and the Militarisation of Orbit

Key players

Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) Defence

Key players

Sustainable Energy in Defence

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) and Naval Defence & Maritime Security Exhibition (NAVDEX) 2027.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Arming an archipelago: Is time running out for Europe's oldest DMZ? | Euronews

Comprehensive approach to security: Federal Council launches consultation on Switzerland's security policy strategy

Ukraine Drone Strikes Crimea Power Grid

Georgia Considers Position in New South Caucasus Transit Era - Jamestown

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

United Arab Emirates January 2027

By committee

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

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Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

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International Conference on Globalization, Human Rights, and Post-Conflict Policy

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Frequently asked questions