“It will be a month of major national projection in the fields of experimentation, innovation, and research within the military environment,” the Army Chief of Staff told Lusa, highlighting the debut of the European Defence Agency’s HEDI-OPEX26 campaign within the Army’s primary national technological experimentation exercise.

General Eduardo Mendes Ferrão spoke to Lusa on the sidelines of the ceremony presenting the National Standard to the 5th National Deployed Force (5FND), held at the Santa Margarida Military Camp in Constância, before the Portuguese force’s deployment to Slovakia.

ARTEX26 (Army Technological Experimentation Exercise 2026) takes place from 21 September to 14 October at the Santa Margarida Military Camp and associated testing areas. This year, it takes on a European dimension by incorporating the European Defence Agency (EDA) HEDI-OPEX26 campaign, which focuses on the collaborative operational experimentation of emerging technologies.

More than just an equipment demonstration, the exercise aims to test technologies in an operational environment, validate employment concepts, and assess their integration into future military capabilities, thereby bringing industry, universities, and research centres closer to military end-users.

The technologies involved include artificial intelligence systems, drones and other unmanned aerial systems, uncrewed ground vehicles, robotics, smart sensors, command and control systems, electronic warfare, resilient communications, and human-machine integration solutions.

According to Mendes Ferrão, throughout October, Portugal will host three major international initiatives in the field of military technology experimentation—two led by the Army and one by the Navy—bringing together representatives from the European Union, NATO, industry, academia, and military end-users.

“In this military domain, Portugal is well-positioned to establish itself as a major European player—and a key player within European Union institutions, the European Defence Agency, and NATO,” he stated.

The official emphasised that the choice of Portugal represents international recognition of the work carried out by the Army and national partners in applying technology experimentation to operational contexts.

“These institutions selected us to host their activities in Portugal. And that is significant,” he declared.

According to the Army, integrating the HEDI-OPEX26 campaign will enable collaborative experimentation among EU member states, industry, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), universities, research centres, and military end-users, thereby accelerating the delivery of new capabilities to the Armed Forces.

The goal is to “experiment before acquiring, learn before implementing, and innovate through partnership,” thereby reducing technological risk and aligning the transformation of the land force with operational needs.

According to the Army Chief of Staff (CEME), hosting the European campaign this year could pave the way for organising a similar NATO-led exercise in 2027 focused on testing unmanned ground systems.

“It is highly likely that the NATO exercise for unmanned ground systems will come here. It is not 100% confirmed, but there is a strong probability it will coincide with the 2027 ARTEX,” he stated.

The general noted that, if it goes ahead, this would be the first time Portugal hosts this NATO exercise, much like the Navy’s REPMUS exercise for unmanned maritime systems.