# AFRIDEX 2026: What the Technical Theatre told African industry

- Link: https://www.military.africa/2026/11/afridex-2026-what-the-technical-theatre-told-african-industry/
- Published: 2026-11-10T07:56:25+01:00
- Author: Oshoke Sule

The Africa International Defence Exhibition (AFRIDEX) held its [first edition at Eko Atlantic, Lagos](https://www.military.africa/2026/10/afridex-2026-opens-in-lagos-as-nigeria-courts-africas-defence-market/),
from 26 to 29 October 2026. Organised by dmg events with the Defence Industries 
Corporation of Nigeria ([DICON](https://www.military.africa/tag/dicon/)), the show
filled its halls with armoured vehicles, drones and signing ceremonies. Away from
the stands, its Technical Theatre hosted talks by military officers, government 
officials and industry. Over three days, I attended a dozen of those sessions.

The sessions covered land, sea and air, and each domain had its own topics. Despite
that range, two themes kept coming up. The first is regional collaboration: African
forces cannot secure the region one country at a time. The second is local capacity:
each country needs the skills and infrastructure to keep its own equipment working,
and in time to design equipment for African problems. That capacity can come from
indigenous companies or from foreign manufacturers that localise their production
and support, and either route creates opportunities for Nigerian and African firms.
Below are the sessions that stood out to me, starting with one that was not focused
on equipment at all.

![Military officers and a civilian official walk past the Africa International Defence
Exhibition signage at Eko Atlantic, Lagos](https://www.military.africa/wp-content/
uploads/2026/11/afridex-2026-officers-outdoor-signage-eko-atlantic.webp)

Senior officers and officials arrive at the first Africa International Defence Exhibition
at Eko Atlantic, Lagos. (Image: supplied)

## Disruption as doctrine

One of the most thought-provoking talks of the week came from Brigadier General 
Mohammed Isa Lemu of the Nigerian Army, under the title _The Connected Base: Sustaining
Operations Through Disruption_. His framework treats each insurgent as a capability,
then works backwards to the doctrine and resources that sustain it. What does that
fighter need to be armed, trained and fed, and where does each of those come from?
Using Boko Haram as his example, he traced the chain from motorcycles bought in 
used-bike markets and fuel supplies to the ideology that recruits fighters in the
first place.

The aim, he said, is to disrupt the whole chain, including the thinking behind it.
A partial disruption lets the enemy adapt. A holistic one leaves far less room to
do so. That demands extensive intelligence and what he called a fusion doctrine,
joining military, economic and information tools. He closed on the old line that
insurgents are the fish and the people are the water. Ending an insurgency, he said,
ultimately needs the cooperation of local people.

![Two army officers in green dress uniform shake hands with an industry representative
at a stand during AFRIDEX 2026](https://www.military.africa/wp-content/uploads/2026/
11/afridex-2026-officers-meet-exhibitor-stand.webp)

Army officers greet an industry representative on the exhibition floor at AFRIDEX
2026. (Image: supplied)

## Preparing for high-intensity conflict

A drone designed to year-old requirements and then stockpiled will be useless in
a future war. That was the warning from Rene Ehasalu, cluster manager at the Estonian
Defence and Aerospace Industry Association, speaking on a panel about preparing 
ground forces for high-intensity conflict and the lessons of the war in Ukraine.
Procurement offices face a double challenge. They must hold enough ammunition and
other critical stocks for a high-intensity war, while knowing that fast-moving systems
such as drones can be out of date before they are ever used. The panel’s answer 
was to shift the focus from holding reserves to building the capacity to scale up
production quickly when it is needed. He also proposed that Estonia and African 
partners develop counter-drone systems together.

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Giving the Nigerian perspective, Lieutenant Colonel A.A. Ikoro of the [Nigerian Army](https://www.military.africa/tag/nigerian-army/)
argued that interoperability, between units of one army or between allied forces,
is a central part of preparing for high-intensity conflict because it reduces dependence.
Drawing on deployment experience, he described allied forces whose communications
systems could not work together, which left one force relying on the other. Interoperable
systems, he argued, let both sides contribute.

He also stressed the need for a strong maintenance and sustainment culture for armoured
vehicles, built on cooperation between manufacturers and the armies that use their
equipment. He described repairs slowed by long lead times because some manufacturers
have a very small presence in the country.

His prescription was closer engagement between manufacturers and the armed forces,
so that manufacturers hear directly from the units using their equipment. In effect,
that is a loop from the battlefield back to the production line.

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![A visitor in a suit examines a multi-shot grenade launcher at an exhibitor stand
during AFRIDEX 2026 in Lagos](https://www.military.africa/wp-content/uploads/2026/
11/afridex-2026-official-examines-grenade-launcher.webp)

A visitor examines a multi-shot grenade launcher at an exhibitor’s stand during 
AFRIDEX 2026. (Image: supplied)

## The importance of naval interoperability

The Gulf of Guinea is too large for any one navy to police. That is why the Yaoundé
Architecture exists. Built on a [2013 code of conduct](https://www.imo.org/en/OurWork/Security/Pages/West-and-Central-Africa.aspx)
signed by 25 West and Central African countries, it rests on the idea that maritime
threats do not stop at national boundaries. For it to work, the navies involved 
need interoperability strong enough to turn separate national capabilities into 
a single one.

The speakers, including Commodore Isa Abubakar Ahmed of the International Maritime
Institute of Nigeria and Dr Jamie McCoy of Frequentis Defense, discussed three pillars
of interoperability: systems, standards and integration, as set out by the Commodore
in his opening presentation on the topic. Technology is only worth what the wider
system can do with it, and information passed between forces without shared standards
is useless. In the Gulf of Guinea, the test is whether a navy can act on the information
it receives. Artificial intelligence can help by fusing data from different units
into a single view, provided cyber security is built in from the start, since every
new connection is a new way in.

The panel recommended stronger information-sharing arrangements, consistent procedures,
regular joint exercises and lasting institutional support. A partnership, one speaker
said, is measured by what a navy can do on its own afterwards.

## Protecting critical undersea infrastructure

In the session on protecting critical undersea infrastructure, moderated by Matt
Harman of Greypoint Advisory Services, the panel discussed the undersea assets that
need protection, including oil pipelines, submarine cables and the natural resources
of the sea. Special attention was given to the data cables that connect Africa to
the world, especially in the context of March 2024, when [damage to several cables off Côte d’Ivoire](https://resources.telegeography.com/march-2024-west-africa-cable-faults)
disrupted internet services across the region, Nigeria included.

To reduce that risk and improve the ability to monitor and prevent sabotage, the
panel discussed the role of mapping cable routes and keeping them clear as no-anchorage
zones. It also pointed to the need for measures to improve resilience through cable
redundancy, and for early-warning systems and sensors so that threats to underwater
infrastructure are identified and prevented before they become problems.

The panel also pointed to a capability gap in mapping Nigeria’s underwater resources,
including fish and other parts of the blue economy. Speakers discussed the need 
for [unmanned surface vessels](https://www.military.africa/2026/10/afridex-2026-nigerias-arridex-unveils-adx-barra-200-unmanned-boats/),
ideally produced locally or elsewhere in Africa, which, working with the navy, would
map Nigeria’s underwater regions in order to better protect them.

For local industry, it points to clear openings in seabed mapping, subsea sensing
and early warning.

![A delegation walks through the AFRIDEX 2026 exhibition hall beside a quadruped
robot, past the CEFO Aeronautics and MKE stands](https://www.military.africa/wp-
content/uploads/2026/11/afridex-2026-delegation-robot-dog-exhibition-hall.webp)

A delegation tours the AFRIDEX 2026 exhibition hall beside a quadruped robot. (Image:
supplied)

## Air mobility as a strategic enabler

In this session, Air Vice Marshal Michael Onyebashi, Air Officer Commanding Mobility
Command of the Nigerian Air Force, challenged the view of air mobility as a nice-
to-have for African militaries and argued that it should be treated as a strategic
enabler. Where air mobility is absent, he said, response options disappear and outcomes
change, yet militaries still treat airlift as a support function.

He listed what holds African airlift back: weak maintenance, fleets made up of too
many aircraft types, poor infrastructure, and the agreements and diplomatic clearances
needed to fly across borders. He called for three shifts: from support to strategic
enabler, from aircraft to system, and from national to collective. The Economic 
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in particular, he said, needs a strong
airlift force built on pooled aircraft.

I asked which of these challenges was most pressing, and how industry, especially
indigenous companies, could help. His answer was perception first: militaries need
to understand how much this capability matters. After that come gaps in the value
chain that indigenous companies are well placed to fill. The most value, he added,
comes from treating airlift as a system, not a set of individual aircraft.

## An important avenue for collaboration

These few sessions from the Technical Theatre show where much of AFRIDEX’s value
lay. Industry builds relevant solutions by listening to the people who will use 
them, and in these rooms officers and officials set out their pain points in front
of the companies that could solve them. Each session gave industry a clearer picture
of what to build. We need far more sessions like these to increase industry and 
armed forces collaboration, at AFRIDEX and other platforms between major defence
exhibitions.

The first theme, regional collaboration, ran through the naval and air sessions.
The Yaoundé Architecture at sea and the call for a pooled ECOWAS airlift force both
point to a security architecture that does not rest on any one country’s capacity.
This changes what industry has to produce. Platforms need strong interoperability
built in from the start, and companies should focus on winning customers in neighbouring
African countries, because shared platforms help build regional collaboration and
give those companies a competitive edge.

The second theme, local capacity, came up even more often. A shared architecture
still needs members that can keep their own equipment working, and most of the problems
raised pointed to the same answer: a stronger local industrial base. Armoured vehicles
wait longer for repairs when their manufacturers have a small presence in the country.
The undersea panel wanted unmanned vessels produced locally or elsewhere in Africa,
along with the tools to map the seabed and spot threats early. On air mobility, 
the answer to my question pointed straight to gaps in the value chain that indigenous
companies are well placed to fill. These are pain points that only indigenous solutions
and capabilities can solve for good, starting with local technicians and companies
that can service the equipment already in use.

![Mannequins in body armour, helmets and camouflage uniform beside a multirotor 
drone at the Proforce Galaxies stand at AFRIDEX 2026](https://www.military.africa/
wp-content/uploads/2026/11/afridex-2026-proforce-stand-soldier-gear-drone.webp)

Soldier protective equipment and a multirotor drone on the Proforce Galaxies stand
at AFRIDEX 2026. (Image: supplied)

That capacity is also where innovation starts. The high-intensity panel’s answer
to the stockpiling dilemma was the ability to scale up production quickly, and the
Estonian proposal to develop counter-drone systems with African partners only works
if those partners can build. Technicians who repair a platform learn how it works,
and companies that service it learn what fails in African conditions. That is the
knowledge a country needs to design systems for its own threats.

Lt Col A.A. Ikoro said manufacturers need to hear directly from the units using 
their equipment. Sessions like these are where that happens, and where industry 
and the armed forces can start working on problems together. If African companies
take up what was raised in Lagos with the forces that raised it, they will have 
real solutions to show at the next AFRIDEX.

_Oshoke Sule is a defence-focused project manager with a background in computer 
engineering. He has completed an MSc in Project Management at UCD Michael Smurfit
Graduate Business School, where he wrote on European defence governance._

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