Indra Group’s CEO advocates the company’s role in providing Europe with the technological and industrial capabilities required to defend the continent

• José Vicente de los Mozos emphasised the company's vocation, ambition and commitment to Europe at the EU's 5th European Defence and Security Conference
• "Indra is investing, expanding and improving its industrial capabilities", he declared, listing the company's solutions that can contribute to closing gaps in areas such as artificial intelligence (with IndraMind), drones, the anti-drone wall and space situational awareness
• Indra Group's CEO took part in the Rearming Europe round table, during which he stressed the importance of focusing on major programs and joint purchases, with the Ministries of Defence displaying greater engagement and win-win solutions involving countries and industries to build trust
• De los Mozos also held bilateral meetings with Belgian Minister of Defence Theo Francken and Andrius Kubilius, the European Commissioner for Defence, among others, to showcase what the company has to offer the sector

Indra Group chief executive officer José Vicente de los Mozos had a full schedule at the 5th European Defence and Security Conference held today in Brussels, at which he emphasised Indra's willingness to assume its role as a major European company and contribute to meeting the needs of the continent's armies with its technological, industrial and collaborative capabilities.

Indra is involved in all of the EU's defence initiatives and it can boast a long-standing history of collaboration, but, furthermore, "Indra is investing, expanding and improving its industrial and delivery capabilities", he stated.

He took part in the round table titled Rearming Europe: Aligning Policy with Industrial and Military Capabilities, together with Panayiotis Hadjipavlis, director of defence of the Czech Republic, André Denk, chief executive of the European Defence Agency, Herald Ruijters, deputy director-general of DG DEFIS (Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space), Jean-Brice Dumont, head of Air Power at Airbus D&S, and Stefan A. Hess, a member of Hensoldt's Executive Committee.

During the event, de los Mozos stated that "the European Defence Fund is a highly useful tool when it comes to launching joint developments, but these products won't become well-established unless the participating member States make purchases together". "It's important to concentrate on major European projects focusing on capabilities that member States can't develop and acquire on their own, rather than hundreds of small developments", he added.

According to de los Mozos, common projects are the best enablers of building trust: "We need to identify and encourage win-win solutions involving countries and industries that favour everyone, thereby generating trust". He proposes the joint development of the next generation of defence systems within the European Defence Fund, but "with the Ministries of Defence showing greater and longer engagement from day one".

He outlined the importance of investment in defence and security on the continent to close the "large capability gaps in all the domains" and the need for "a political decision to immediately acquire new solutions to replace the legacy systems that have been operational for over 30 years, as they can no longer cope with the new threats witnessed in Ukraine".

IndraMind, air defence and space surveillance

José Vicente de los Mozos listed some of Indra's solutions that can contribute to closing the gaps in the continent's defence, including IndraMind, with which the company is seeking to lead the era of artificial intelligence in Europe. The aim is for this sovereign cognitive brain for mission-critical decision-making to constitute the European alternative to the big tech giants so as to ensure strategic autonomy and technological sovereignty.

Air defence is another of the most important areas for Indra's chief executive officer: "We lack a multi-domain and multi-level air defence system that's capable of providing robust air defence to combat traditional threats such as missiles and fighters and new ones such as drones".
Space and its synergies with defence are also a priority for Indra, which provides next-generation space surveillance radars to the Spanish and German air forces. "It's important to develop a joint space situational awareness capability, as we still need real European Space C2 capacity for military operations", he underlined.

Bilateral meetings

Within the framework of the conference, Indra's CEO also held bilateral meetings, among others, with Andrius Kubilius, the European Commissioner for Defence, to whom he expressed the company's willingness to actively contribute to the defence of the southern and eastern areas of the continent with its state-of-the-art technology. For example, he highlighted that "Indra has a solution for the rapid deployment of the so-called anti-drone wall, based on its AirDef (Air C2) system and combined with the drone detection capabilities of Lanza LTR-25 radars and the Aracne anti-drone (C-UAS) system developed in partnership with EM&E Group".

This urgent and strategic priority for defence and aerial surveillance to combat drones also came up in the conversation with Belgian Minister of Defence Theo Francken, to whom he explained that Indra is becoming fully integrated into developing European defence programs and strengthening its position in the Belgian market, in which it participates in the main defence associations and forums, having reached a collaboration agreement with Intersoft Electronics for radar systems, electronic warfare and anti-drone technologies a few months ago.