Unprecedented interest in the largest IDET ever

May 30, 2025 / 5:00 PM

The most successful trade show focused on strengthening defense and security took place at the Brno Exhibition Centre. The 18th IDET international fair, together with the PYROS and ISET fairs, was a comprehensive showcase of new technologies and options for countering various security risks. This year, more than 650 exhibiting companies from 35 countries were featured and over 35 thousand visitors visited the fairs in the course of three days.

"This year's security fairs were exceptional from every point of view. There is no other platform in our region this year that would allow the presentation of defense and security companies on such a scale, where all the major players would meet and which would have such an international outreach," stated Jan Kubata, CEO of the company Trade Fairs Brno.

The IDET 2025 trade fair was once again a key presentation platform for domestic producers. "Thank you for organizing this trade fair, which is very important for the defense and security industry, because here we can show not only to our armed and security forces, but also to more than 50 international delegations all that we can produce and how far we have come in technologies," Jiří Hynek, president of the Defence and Security Industry Association, declaredat the trade fair.

VIP guests and record-breaking international participation

The importance of this year's event was underlined by the participation of high-ranking representatives not only from the Czech Republic. The opening speech was delivered by the President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel, and the Minister of Defense of the Czech Republic Jana Černochová, the Minister of Defense of Slovakia Robert Kaliňák, and the Minister of Defense of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Guy Kabombo Muadiamvita, Governor of the South Moravian Region Jan Grolich, Mayor of Brno Markéta Vaňková, Chief of the General Staff of the Army of the Czech Republic Karel Řehka, Director General of the Fire and Rescue Service Vladimír Vlček and First Deputy Police President Tomáš Lerch.

The fair's offer was viewed by delegations of representatives of the armed forces from a record 52 countries. There was also a record interest from foreign journalists. A total of 286 media representatives from 12 countries were accredited in the press center. There was also a high participation of foreign exhibitors, who came mainly from Germany, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. India opened its official exhibition at IDET for the first time, while Austria, Hungary and Slovakia had additional official stands.

Ministry of Defense and the Army of the Czech Republic in grand style, with major contracts being signed

This year, the Ministry of Defense and the Army of the Czech Republic prepared the largest exposition in history with the motto "Connection Means Strength". It was backed by over 600 soldiers, more than 200 pieces of equipment were featured, and great emphasis was placed on recruitment activities. The Army presented itself at the fair as a technologically advanced institution prepared for modern forms of future conflicts, where speed, accuracy and information security are decisive.

In the context of the ongoing modernization of not only the Czech army, a number of talks on new acquisitions took place at the fair. New contracts and partnerships were intensely discussed at the stands for three days. At the same time, some previously negotiated contracts were finalized. An example is the three key agreements on industrial cooperation between the Czech companies AERO Vodochody, VZLU AEROSPACE and Vrgineers and the US company Lockheed Martin within the framework of the project to acquire 24 F-35A Lightning II for the Czech Army. AERO Vodochody and LOM PRAHA signed a declaration of intent at the fair to jointly develop the L-39 Skyfox system using modern LVC technology. The Omnipol Group solemnly signed a strategic agreement to establish the Roshel CZ joint venture and start localized production of Senator series vehicles in the Czech Republic.

Revealing cutting-edge technologies, and handing awards for innovative exhibits

The Czechoslovak Group, which was the general partner of this year's event, had its world premiere in the Pandur 8×8 EVO wheeled armored infantry vehicle from Tatra Defence Vehicle. The Omnipol Group presented a new product in the form of the Senator armored personnel carrier from the Canadian company Roshel. The Czech premiere of the third generation of the extremely popular CZ BREN rifles was held at the Česká zbrojovka stand.

A traditional part of IDET was the announcement of awards for the most innovative exhibits. This year, the evaluation committee handed four GOLD IDET 2025 awards, which were won by: the remote-controlled weapon station GLADIUS MAX from the manufacturer and exhibitor EVPÚ Defence, the unmanned aircraft Air Defense Solution controlled by artificial intelligence from the manufacturer TRL Drones and exhibitor TRL Space Systems, the wheeled armored vehicle PANDUR 8×8 EVO from the manufacturer and exhibitor TATRA DEFENCE VEHICLE and the 30 × 173 mm SAPHEI-T/SD cartridge, which was manufactured and exhibited by the company ZVI.

As part of the GOLD IDET 2025 competition, the committee also handed three honorary mentions to innovative exhibits. Theese went to KALAN – an amphibious tracked vehiclefrom themanufacturer and exhibitor New Space Technologies, as well as an autonomous swarm of robots and drones for remote sensing, presented by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication Technologies of the Brno University of Technology, and the EGIS NG technology demonstrator from the manufacturer and exhibitor Ray Service.

This year, the award for Personality of the Association of Defense and Security Industry was received by Ing. Vítězslav Moťka, who connected his professional life with the company Meopta Přerov.

At the same time, four prestigious GOLD IDET NEWS 2025 journalists’ awards were announced.The award for a foreign exhibitor was won by the Ukrainian company UGVR Machinery, in the military vehicles category the company TATRA EXPORT was awarded for the exhibited novelty TATRA 810 M, in the active protection systems category the company EVPU Defence received an award for the active protection system of armored vehicles APS HARPIA, and in the training systems category the state enterprise LOM PRAHA and the daughter company VR Group received an award for the joint project Full Mission simulator for the L-39 Skyfox aircraft.

AWARDED EXHIBITS

New topics and expert conferences

IDET highlighted new key topics such as space defense and the use of 3D technologies. The Space Defense and Startup zone opened for the first time as a specialized platform to support partnerships between emerging companies and established industry players. The follow-up conference "Defending Europe Together", co-organized by the Czech DEPO Ventures and the Lithuanian BSV Ventures.

The highlighted topic of 3D technologies focused on the use of additive manufacturing in the defense industry, especially for the development and production of weapons, drones and other military equipment. The first year of the 3D-ARMY expert gathering was of extraordinary interest, attended by professionals from the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Spain and Israel.

The Czech-Israeli Chamber of Commerce organized a conference at the IDET trade fair focused on new technologies deployed in Operation Swords of Iron. During the fair, two important conferences organized by the University of Defence also took place – the International Conference on Military Technology, and the International Conference Defense & Strategy.

PYROS, ISET and big equipment in action

The PYROS firefighting technology and services fair and the ISET security technology and services fair also brought interesting news. An example is the world premiere of the original Czech amphibious vehicle KALAN in the New Space Technologies exhibition. The amphibious tracked vehicle with exceptional cross-country ability and full usability on water can evacuate up to 80 people and transport up to 13 tons of material. It is intended for multi-purpose or special civilian and military use and was developed in close cooperation with the Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic.

A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed at the PYROS trade fair by THT Polička and ProLab Engineering. Together they introduced the firefighting and supply robot Hecthora, which, in addition to conventional control, also offers the use of inertial navigation or partially autonomous modes powered by an advanced AI navigation system.

All three fairs used the unique environment of the Brno Exhibition Centre, which allows for the presentation of large exhibits both statically and in action. The outdoor IDET ARENA with an off-road polygon was the venue for demonstrations of the dynamic use of military, firefighting and police equipmentthroughout the security fairs. A novelty here was a joint project of the University of Defence and the company 3DFENSE, which demonstrated the production and assembly of UAV systems directly on site in a production container.