European Defence Agency to test drones and loitering munitions in Portugal with more than 200 military and industry participants

The European Defence Agency is bringing more than 200 military users, innovators and industry participants to Portugal for the EU Operational Experimentation campaign at Santa Margarida. More than 40 companies, startups and innovation organizations will test autonomous systems, loitering munitions and electronic communications in realistic and degraded battlefield conditions alongside the Portuguese Army’s ARTEX26 exercise. The event is intended to connect users directly with developers and accelerate promising systems toward procurement, while five loitering-munition finalists will compete for a combined €1.8 million in prizes after the competition.