The Euro Defence Expo (EUDEX) is Germany's first dedicated international defence trade fair, running 22 to 25 September 2026 at Messe Essen. It shares the fairground with security essen, the established civil security exhibition, and pairs the show floor with the NATO Joint Air Power Competence Centre annual conference. More than 270 exhibitors are confirmed across eleven product groups, and every visitor registration passes a security check before a ticket is released.
Euro Defence Expo (EUDEX) is Germany's first dedicated international trade fair for the defence industry, organised by MESSE ESSEN GmbH. It runs from 22 to 25 September 2026 on the Messe Essen fairground, occupying Halls 3 and 4 plus a section of the Galeria, with outdoor plots for vehicles and live demonstrations. The show runs at the same time as security essen, the established trade fair for civil security and critical infrastructure protection, which gives Essen a combined civil and military security platform. As an inaugural event it carries no audited attendance history: the organiser reported more than 270 exhibitors on 11 June 2026 and has published no visitor forecast for EUDEX alone.
EUDEX is a new format rather than a renamed one. Its creation follows Germany's accelerated defence spending after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the Zeitenwende in German security policy: MESSE ESSEN cited German military spending of more than EUR 97 billion in 2025, up 24 per cent year on year, when it presented the show in May 2026. MESSE ESSEN and its partner CPM GmbH, a Meckenheim-based defence publishing house that also runs the RÜ.NET user forum in Koblenz, identified a structural gap. Germany's European neighbours host established national land-defence exhibitions, France with Eurosatory and Spain with FEINDEF, while Germany had none. The show was launched in November 2025 with Heckler & Koch among the first exhibitors, presented at a parliamentary evening in Berlin in March 2026 that drew 120 political, diplomatic, military and industry representatives, and opened its ticket shop on 30 March 2026. The German Federal Ministry of Defence confirmed in 2025 that it would accompany the fair at senior level.
The inaugural edition opens on Tuesday 22 September 2026. The organiser reported more than 270 exhibitors across eleven product groups on 11 June 2026, up from the roughly 250 expected in January 2026 and the 80 registered from twelve countries a year before the show. Modern industrial manufacturing, logistics and supply, and NBC defence are the most heavily subscribed groups. Named exhibitors include KNDS Deutschland Tracks, Heckler & Koch, ARX Robotics, AIRSENSE Analytics, Nokia, Scania, Fokker, Munk Group and IABG. Group stands carry regional and thematic delegations: North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, the Portuguese Produtech participation under the banner Technologies from Portugal, Die Schlüsselregion, the Industrialized Additive Manufacturing Hub Hamburg, the Märkischer Kreis development agency GWS, a Young Innovators area for startups, and a stand from the SCHWEISSEN & SCHNEIDEN welding fair.
Alongside the show floor, the EUDEX Conference by CPM addresses European deep strike capability, covering reconnaissance and targeting, command structures, industrial production and ammunition availability. It is held in Hall 3 and is free for EUDEX ticket holders. The NATO Joint Air Power Competence Centre annual conference runs in the Grugahalle with more than 400 senior military representatives from the 32 NATO member nations and requires separate registration. An International Diplomatic Forum for embassies and consulates takes place on 23 September, the V4 Business Matchmaking with the German chambers of commerce in Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary also on 23 September, and a Dutch startup pitch session, Keep in Touch with the Dutch, in Hall 3 on 24 September from 13:00 to 15:00. Training Base Weeze stages a live demonstration built around a simulated helicopter crash in a military operating area.
Access conditions are the part of EUDEX most likely to catch a first-time visitor out, and they differ from a standard German trade fair. Registration comes before purchase: a visitor creates an account, and the account is released for ticket purchase only after a security check by the organiser. MESSE ESSEN recommends booking at least five days before the intended visit day, and the confirmation states that the identity document named during registration must be carried to the fairground. There is no walk-up ticket desk equivalent for an unscreened visitor.
Ticket categories are set by professional status rather than by booking date, and no early-bird visitor rate exists. Serving members of the Bundeswehr and allied armed forces enter free of charge. Public authorities, ministries, and research and science pay EUR 35 for a day pass. Industry and delegation day passes cost EUR 79. Every EUDEX ticket also admits the holder to security essen. The reverse does not hold: security essen states on its own ticket page that a security essen ticket does not grant access to EUDEX, so anyone whose interest spans both shows must buy through the EUDEX shop.
Journalists go through a separate four-step process. An online accreditation form takes an upload proving current journalistic work, the EUDEX press office issues an individual ticket code after review, the journalist redeems that code in the EUDEX ticket shop, and the press card arrives by email after a further check. The organiser asks journalists to accredit no later than 14 September 2026 because of the time the review takes. MESSE ESSEN's general accreditation rules require bylined work no older than six months, a masthead entry no older than three months, a written commission from a full editorial team, or a recognised press card, and they exclude PR advisers, sales and account staff, corporate blog contributors and product testers. Content creators are admitted only with prior accreditation and documented reach. The organiser has not published how many journalists it expects to accredit.
EUDEX takes a late September slot with no direct clash against the large biennial European land-defence shows. Eurosatory in Paris runs in June of even years and DSEI in London in September of odd years, so Essen inserts itself into a gap rather than a contested week. Its stated focus on land technologies, cyber security, unmanned systems and artificial intelligence sets it apart from the maritime and air-power shows, and its civil and military pairing distinguishes it from the homeland security circuit represented by Milipol Paris. The full picture of how the European and Gulf defence shows interlock across the year sits on the defence vertical, and the next dated entries across every sector are listed on the upcoming events page.
The visitor profile is professional by design and filtered by the registration check. The organiser targets national and international delegations from armed forces, defence ministries and procurement organisations; government representatives, specialist politicians and senior officials; police, security and law enforcement agencies; research and development institutions; and technology companies. Delegations from more than 30 nations were expected as of January 2026. The delegation programme runs on two tracks: business delegations from industry, research, technology companies and international organisations apply through a form that captures headcount, visit days and fields of interest, while government and military delegations qualify from grade B6 civilian or military rank and equivalent upwards. The co-location with security essen adds civil protection and critical infrastructure specialists, and MESSE ESSEN put combined trade visitor reach across both shows at more than 20,000 in January 2026. General public access is not the intent, and the screening step makes that explicit rather than advisory.
The exhibition occupies Halls 3 and 4 plus part of the Galeria for indoor stands, with outdoor plots for vehicles, large equipment and live demonstrations. The EUDEX Forum runs across all four days with keynotes, panels, international networking sessions and practitioner talks, free to fair visitors. The EUDEX Conference by CPM adds a strategic conference strand in Hall 3 on the theme of European deep strike capability, free to EUDEX ticket holders. The JAPCC annual conference sits in the Grugahalle as a separate event with its own registration, linked to the fair by a shared evening function and mutual visiting arrangements. EUDEX Match & Meet, the pre-arranged B2B meeting platform, is open across the whole run; the organiser reported around 100 company representatives already connected on it on 18 August 2026. security essen fills the neighbouring halls at the same time, with the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance in Hall 5, a short walk from the EUDEX floor.
The show is organised into eleven product groups: Protection and Effect; Personal Equipment and Gear; Research and Development; Logistics, Supply and Support; Command and Communication; Reconnaissance and Surveillance; Training, Education and Simulation; AI and Software; Unmanned Systems and Robotics; Vehicles and Large Equipment; and NBC Defence. Modern industrial manufacturing runs across the exhibition as a cross-cutting theme covering production methods, digital processes and industrial scale-up, and cyber security is treated as a thematic priority rather than a separate hall category. The organiser frames the whole under a Total Defence concept that reaches from cyber attack and hybrid activity through critical infrastructure protection to conventional territorial defence.
| Exhibitors (organiser, 11 June 2026) | more than 270 |
| Product groups | 11 |
| Combined exhibitors with security essen (organiser, January 2026) | more than 800 |
| Combined trade visitor reach claimed across both shows | more than 20,000 |
| Delegation nations expected | more than 30 |
| JAPCC annual conference delegates | more than 400, from 32 NATO nations |
| EUDEX Match & Meet users before opening (18 August 2026) | around 100 company representatives |
| EUDEX visitor forecast | not publicly disclosed |
No. EUDEX is a trade fair for professionals. Registration is mandatory, it names the visitor's organisation and role, and the account is released for ticket purchase only after the organiser completes a security check. Access is intended for industry, armed forces, ministries, procurement bodies, police and security agencies, research institutions and accredited journalists.
Both shows run on the Messe Essen fairground from 22 to 25 September 2026, EUDEX covering military and dual-use defence technologies and security essen covering civil security, critical infrastructure, fire protection and cyber security. The pass is one-way: an EUDEX ticket admits the holder to security essen, but a security essen ticket does not admit the holder to EUDEX. Visitors who want both must buy through the EUDEX ticket shop.
EUDEX is presented as a recurring trade fair tied to security essen, which MESSE ESSEN stages every two years. As of 2 September 2026 the organiser has published no date for a second EUDEX edition, so the recurrence pattern beyond the inaugural show is not yet confirmed.
Messe Essen sits at Messeplatz 1, 45131 Essen, and the address to use for satellite navigation is Norbertstraße, 45131 Essen. The fairground has ten halls with around 110,000 square metres of indoor exhibition space plus roughly 20,000 square metres of outdoor area, and the Grugahalle on the same site hosts the JAPCC conference. By rail, Essen Hauptbahnhof handles more than 120 long-distance services a day and connects to the fairground in about five minutes on the U11 underground line, which serves the Messe Ost, Messe West and Messe Süd entrances. By car, the A3, A40, A42 and A52 all feed the site; parking costs EUR 18 on car parks P1 to P9 and EUR 10 on P10, with around 5,000 spaces near the halls and a further 7,000 in the park and ride system. Essen sits inside the Ruhr low emission zone, so a green Umweltplakette sticker is required to drive in. Düsseldorf Airport is about 20 minutes away by car, and an Airport Express coach runs every 30 minutes on show days between 07:45 and 18:45, taking around 20 minutes for EUR 25 one way or EUR 35 return. Essen/Mülheim airport is about ten minutes from the fairground by car or taxi.
MESSE ESSEN GmbH is a municipal exhibition company founded in 1913 and registered at the Essen district court under HRB 2. The City of Essen's 2025 shareholding report, covering accounts to 31 December 2024, records the City of Essen holding 79.97 per cent of the share capital, the company holding 20.02 per cent in own shares and 0.01 per cent in free float. Oliver P. Kuhrt is managing director, and the supervisory board is chaired by Lord Mayor Thomas Kufen with deputy mayor Rudolf Jelinek as his deputy. The company runs around 55 fairs and congresses a year, among them security essen and the SCHWEISSEN & SCHNEIDEN welding fair, and it holds half of E-world energy & water GmbH. Julia Jacob is EUDEX project director. The conference programme is delivered with CPM GmbH of Meckenheim, publisher of the Defence Network portal, whose owner Tobias Ehlke is also the show's main media partner. Defence.NRW, the North Rhine-Westphalia defence cluster, is listed as ideational partner. As of 2 September 2026 the show's declared sponsors are National-Bank AG at silver level and BWConsulting and Heckler & Koch GmbH at bronze level.
Coverage of EUDEX before the inaugural edition falls into three identifiable strands, and the organiser has not published how many journalists it expects to accredit or any measure of coverage volume.
The first strand is specialist security and defence trade press relaying the organiser's announcements, generally within days of each release. a&s Adria Magazine ran "EUDEX 2026 Expands with More Exhibitors, International Participation and New Diplomatic Forum" on 11 June 2026, carrying the 270 exhibitor figure, the eleven product groups and the new International Diplomatic Forum. EDR Magazine published a platform profile under the headline "EUDEX 2026: Europe's New International Platform for Defence and Security", though that piece is marked as sponsored content and should be read as such rather than as independent reporting.
The second strand is German-language security trade media framing EUDEX through its co-location rather than as a standalone show. GIT-SICHERHEIT.de covered the launch on 26 March 2025 as "Euro Defence Expo und NATO JAPCC parallel zur Security Essen 2026", building the story around the convergence of three events on one site. PROTECTOR followed on 3 December 2025 with "Erste Euro Defence Expo (EUDEX) in Essen geplant", reporting the exhibitor registrations then standing at more than 80 companies from twelve countries and the federal ministry's backing.
The third strand is critical coverage from peace-movement and left-leaning outlets, which sharpened in the weeks before opening. NachDenkSeiten published Bernhard Trautvetter's "Marketing-Messe der Militaristen" on 29 August 2026, arguing that the show markets weapons systems under a security framing and pointing readers to a peace conference on Saturday 19 September and a demonstration on Sunday 20 September organised around the Essener Friedensforum. The regional news portal njuuz carried Rüdiger Blaschke's "Verteidigungs- oder Vernichtungsmesse?" on 30 August 2026, describing an Essen "Friedensseptember" programme of film screenings, an educational conference and a vigil at the fairground during the show days. Visitors planning travel should expect protest activity around the site in the days before and during the fair.
EUDEX fills an obvious gap in the European defence exhibition calendar, since Germany has one of the continent's largest defence industrial bases and, until 2026, no national trade fair to match it. The exhibitor count more than tripled in nine months, which suggests the demand was real. What remains untested is whether procurement authorities treat Essen as a fixture alongside Paris and Madrid, and whether the security screening that gives the show its credibility with military visitors also proves workable at the volumes a general trade fair expects.
Registration precedes any purchase. A visitor registers on the official website, the organiser runs a security check, and the account is then released for ticket purchase. MESSE ESSEN advises booking at least five days before the planned visit day, and the identity document named at registration must be brought to the fairground.
| Ticket | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Day pass, industry | EUR 79 | Any one day, includes security essen |
| Day pass, public authorities, ministries, research and science | EUR 35 | Any one day, includes security essen |
| Day pass, military | EUR 0 | Bundeswehr and allied armed forces |
| Day pass, delegations | EUR 79 | Any one day, includes security essen |
| JAPCC Conference ticket | EUR 265 | JAPCC Conference, EUDEX Conference, EUDEX and security essen, all fair days |
No early-bird visitor rate is offered, and no visitor discount deadline applies. The exhibitor early-booking discount that ran to 29 May 2025 has long closed, and exhibitor enquiries now go through the application portal on the official site. The EUDEX Forum is free to fair visitors, the EUDEX Conference by CPM is free to EUDEX ticket holders, and the JAPCC conference requires separate registration through japcc.org. Delegation programmes are requested through the delegation forms on the official site, split between business delegations and government or military delegations.
The organiser reviews each registration before releasing the account for ticket purchase, and states that approval is usually granted at short notice. MESSE ESSEN recommends completing registration and buying at least five days before the intended visit day. The screening criteria themselves are not publicly disclosed, and no list of restricted nationalities is published. Bring the identity document you named during registration, since it is checked at the entrance.
No formal national security clearance is stated as a condition for a standard visitor. Access is limited to professionals, and the registration security check plus identity verification at the door take the place of a clearance requirement. Exhibitors displaying controlled goods remain subject to German and EU export control law, which the fair does not waive.
Through a four-step process: submit the online accreditation form with proof of current journalistic work, receive an individual ticket code from the EUDEX press office after review, redeem the code in the EUDEX ticket shop, then receive the press card by email after a final check. The organiser asks for accreditation by 14 September 2026 at the latest. A press card alone is not normally sufficient, and PR, sales and corporate communications roles are excluded.
Germany is in the Schengen Area and nationals of many countries need a Schengen visitor visa. Since 2013 a German trade fair visa application no longer requires an invitation letter from the organiser. MESSE ESSEN has appointed CIBTvisas to handle invitation formalities, and its booking portal is linked from the visa page of the official site with service fees shown at application.
The U11 underground line links Essen Hauptbahnhof to the Messe Ost, Messe West and Messe Süd entrances in about five minutes. Deutsche Bahn offers event tickets for EUDEX attendees at up to 10 per cent off standard fares. By road, take the A3, A40, A42 or A52 and use Norbertstraße, 45131 Essen for satellite navigation; car parks P1 to P9 cost EUR 18 and P10 costs EUR 10, and a green low emission sticker is required to enter Essen. From Düsseldorf Airport, the Airport Express coach runs every 30 minutes on show days between 07:45 and 18:45.
| Official website | https://www.eurodefenceexpo.de/ |
| Tickets and prices | https://www.eurodefenceexpo.de/tickets/index-32.html |
| Press accreditation | https://www.eurodefenceexpo.de/presse/akkreditierung/index-18.html |
| Exhibitor list 2026 | https://www.eurodefenceexpo.de/verteidigungsindustrie/ausstellerliste/ |
| Supporting programme | https://www.eurodefenceexpo.de/verteidigungsindustrie/rahmenprogramm/ |
| Delegations and VIP service | https://www.eurodefenceexpo.de/verteidigungsindustrie/delegationen/ |
| EUDEX Conference by CPM | https://cpm-verlag.com/event/eudexconference/ |
| JAPCC annual conference | https://www.japcc.org/conference/ |
| https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/euro-defence-expo-eudex/ | |
| X | not disclosed |