Year 2026

Dr.-Ing. Frank Dirksen is Chief Commercial Officer and Domain Lead Land at Helsing. He previously served as CEO of Rheinmetall Denel Munition in South Africa and spent 15 years as a Bundeswehr officer.

Atilla Çağrı Dağıstan is Air Defence Systems Program Manager at ASELSAN with over 12 years of experience in tactical air defence. He leads advanced air defence programs, including Türkiye’s “Steel Dome” concept, and has worked on SHORAD/VSHORAD and counter-UAS systems.

Julian Kelterborn is Co-Founder and CTO of United Unmanned Systems (UUS), a German-Ukrainian defense technology company building combat-proven unmanned systems. He works closely with Ukrainian units, applying frontline feedback to development, and advises on drone threats and counter-UAS.

Evaldas Dūdonis is a Partner at Sorainen and co-head of the firm’s Defence sector group.

Helmut Michel is a counter-UAS field expert at Aaronia with more than 10 years of experience in military electronic warfare. He is a former commanding officer of the Austrian ELDRO C-UAS element and former Institute Director for Cyber and Electronic…

Vitālijs Rakstiņš is a Latvian practitioner with twenty years of experience in the Ministries of Interior and Defence. He has served as Defence Counsellor to the Latvian Delegation to NATO, Director of the Crisis Management Department and non-resident resilience advisor…

Jack Twiss is a lecturer at the Baltic Defence College in Tartu, Estonia, and a former Netherlands Ambassador to Lithuania. He previously served as Director of Intelligence at the Dutch AIVD and as National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Mark…