Surface Warships 2017

The focus of Surface Warships is on the mainstay of modern naval forces: corvettes, frigates and destroyers. A thematic balance is struck between operational/strategic discussion, and the design and construction of the platforms themselves, their combat systems, communications and armaments.

Take part in this well-known international event, and participate in our dedicated focus day on Naval Combat Systems. This new addition to the Surface Warships programme is devoted to specific, in-depth, discussions and briefings from global thought-leaders and practitioners in the Combat Systems field, and will address topics around modernisation, modularity, interoperability, integration and acquisition of Naval Combat Systems.

Led by senior military and industry personnel, you will have the opportunity to gain both strategic and technical insight from naval leadership and subject matter experts, including information on long-term plans and goals, allowing you to define best practice and to understand how the application of the latest technologies will enable you to deliver greater effect as a naval force.

Key themes this year will include:

• The impact of a resurgent Russian Navy and an increasingly capable Chinese Navy on strategic priorities and platform design/procurement, and how this will affect your business or organisation
• The quantity vs. quality debate: High-cost, high-capability vessels vs. larger numbers of lower-tech platforms, both as adversaries and as internal procurement options, and what this will mean for the future composition of your navy – or the requirements of your customers.
• In-depth analysis on how the modernization and development of advanced Naval Combat Systems is further increasing the capability of existing and planned platforms and how this could enable you to modernize and upgrade existing platforms more expediently
• Examination of concerns relating to ship design, in particular the need for area and near-peer denial vs. humanitarian considerations/disaster relief, and what this means for future platforms. We will examine the increasing need for a modular approach to ship design, in order to guarantee that your high-cost platform is also high-capability
• Ensuring interoperability between high-end vessels in order to improve coordination and fighting ability, specifically focusing on NATO nations’ modernisation and procurement efforts, in order to reduce the cost-burden to individual navies and ensure that allied vessels form a seamlessly integrated fighting force