Around 120 executives and experts from leading companies in the defense and aeronautics sector in Spain gathered on Thursday, November 13, at the Palacio de Las Dueñas in Seville for our Third Annual Conference on Technological Trends, “CATEC Trends 2025.” This year’s event was held under the title “Technology as a pillar of European and national sovereignty” and served once again as a platform for sharing and discussing the main developments and challenges facing the defense sector in Spain in the coming years, with the participation of leading executives from companies that are benchmarks in this industrial and technological field.
The conference began with a speech by CATEC CEO, Joaquín Rodríguez Grau, who thanked the many businesspeople and professionals from across the country for attending the event, as well as his colleagues at CATEC who were responsible for organizing the conference for their work and involvement in this event for yet another year.
The meeting opened with a presentation by Navantia’s president, Ricardo Domínguez, who highlighted the need to strengthen the strategic autonomy of Spain and Europe through technological sovereignty, learning from the bottlenecks in the supply chain resulting from dependence on other countries. He also stressed the importance of innovation and technological development in this field in order to compete with other companies and industries in other countries or regions of the world. In this regard, he also highlighted the role played by Navantia in the Spanish industrial ecosystem, working with more than 3,000 companies, most of which are Spanish, and the supporting role that the Spanish defense industry has played in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion and the conflict in recent years.
Subsequently, a round table discussion was held on “Lessons learned from the war in Ukraine and its impact on technology and future developments in the defense and European industries,” with the participation of José Luis Urcelay, president of Rheinmetall Expal Munitions; Alejandro Page, CEO of GDELS Santa Bárbara Sistemas; Plácido Márquez, CEO of Destinus; and Antonio Gomez-Guillamón, CEO of AERTEC. The discussion was moderated by Enrique Navarro, an independent advisor specializing in defense.
This panel addressed issues such as the need for greater collaboration between defense industry companies and governments, the capacity for evolution and response to strategic needs, and innovation and technological development as a key factor in this sector, as highlighted by the various participating experts.
The day continued with a presentation by Diego Fernández Infante, president of ARQUIMEA, who defended the importance of innovation and technological development, regardless of the industrial sector in which a company operates, and that technological innovation should always be geared towards a final product for the market. “Without customers, there is no innovation,” he said. He also explained Arquimea’s R&D model and how it carries out this activity for its customers through its own research center, which employs more than 100 people.
This was followed by a second round table discussion entitled “Incorporating disruptive technologies from the civil sphere into defense and their impact on industry,” which featured speakers Rafael Orbe, general manager of defense at Sener; Manuel Pérez Cortés, general manager of defense at GMV; Guillermo Roselló, general manager of Defense at Thales; Emilio Varela, corporate director of Strategy at Grupo Oesía; and Carlos de la Cuesta, director of Defense Programs at Telefónica. This round table, which generated an interesting debate, was moderated by Carlos Damián Suárez, former president of Airbus Spain and advisor to CATEC.
During this session, the speakers assessed and shared the dual-use developments and technologies in the civil sphere that they consider most important for the defense sector in the coming years, and on which some of their companies are working. Among these technologies, they highlighted artificial intelligence, electronic systems, and quantum computing.
Our III “CATEC Trends” Conference concluded with a closing speech by Jorge Caro, national coordinator of Airbus in Spain, who first thanked all the companies that collaborate with his company in the field of defense and aeronautics for their work, and insisted on the need to strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy by acting jointly among all countries. He also pointed out that Europe and Spain must continue to improve their competitiveness in the international defense industry and that it is necessary to work in a more coordinated and united manner to defend national sovereignty, which must be articulated under technological sovereignty. Finally, he highlighted some of Airbus’ most recent successful projects and programs in this sector, such as the A330MRTT aircraft, developed entirely in Spain, and the SIRTAP UAS system, which is also being manufactured in our country.
Our CEO, Joaquín Rodríguez Grau, finally closed the day by once again thanking all attendees and the entire CATEC team for making our annual meeting another success. Thank you all very much for participating. Ssee you in 2026!
