NATO procurement officials are set to attend a major defence, security and resilience event in Wales this September.
Defence Security Resilience Cymru, being held at ICC Wales in Newport on September 3 and 4, will bring together more than 2,000 attendees and more than 60 exhibitors from across defence, security and national resilience.
The event is being hosted by Business in Focus in partnership with ADS Group, headline sponsor General Dynamics Land Systems and the Welsh Government. It will connect buyers, suppliers, innovators, government, primes, SMEs, investors and skills providers at a time of increased UK and NATO focus on defence readiness and supply chain resilience.
The attendance of the NATO procurement team is expected to be a significant opportunity for businesses in Wales, particularly SMEs seeking to understand how their capabilities could fit not only within UK defence procurement, but also within wider allied markets.
Speaking on the Defence Security Resilience Cymru podcast Samira Braund, Defence Director at ADS Group, said the presence of the NATO procurement team was an important development for the event and for companies looking at defence, security and resilience opportunities.
She said DSRC would support the UK Government’s “NATO first” agenda by bringing together different parts of the defence and security ecosystem under one roof, from micro SMEs to large primes.
The UK Government’s Defence Investment Plan has set out £298 billion of defence investment across the next four years, including £15 billion of additional spending on top of last year’s Spending Review.
The plan is expected to increase defence funding to almost £80 billion a year by 2029 and take UK defence spending to 2.7% of GDP. The UK Government has said the uplift will create nearly 60,000 extra direct and indirect industry jobs by the end of the decade.
For Wales, the UK Government has also said the plan will strengthen the country’s role as a site for testing and development of autonomous technology and uncrewed aerial systems by industry and the military.
That builds on the £50 million Wales Defence Growth Deal, signed earlier this year, which aims to widen access to MOD test ranges in Wales and make it easier for Welsh SMEs to gain more direct access to secure defence contracts.
Richard Morgan, Defence Consultant at Business in Focus, said there was a clear connection between NATO procurement representatives coming to Wales and the opportunities emerging around drones, autonomous systems and uncrewed vehicles.
He said the Wales Defence Growth Deal had identified Wales’ role in these areas, while NATO had also advanced work around drone-related technologies.
Phil Jones, Chief Executive of Business in Focus, said DSRC would help businesses understand routes into both UK and allied procurement opportunities.
Phil said the event would seek to demystify defence procurement, show businesses where their entry points might be and provide direct engagement through Meet the Buyer activity, investor pitching and skills-focused sessions.
He also pointed to NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, known as DIANA, as another route through which startups and SMEs could connect with NATO requirements.
Hear more on the Defence Security Resilience Cymru podcast. Listen here:
Find out more about Defence Security Resilience Cymru, being held at ICC Wales in Newport on September 3 and 4 2026, here: https://www.dsr.cymru/
