The Deputy Commander of the Joint Cyber Command highlights the strategic value of SMEs at the Defence & Tech Summit

Major General Federico Juste took part in the panel discussion entitled ‘Capabilities and Operations for the New Defence Technology and Industrial Base’

The Joint Cyberspace Command (MCCE) attended the ‘Defence & Tech Summit by SMEs’, held at the LABoral Centre for Art and Industrial Creation in Gijón. As part of the event, Major General Federico Juste de Santa Ana, Deputy Commander of the MCCE, spoke as a panellist on the technological and industrial challenges facing national defence.

During his speech at the panel discussion ‘Capabilities and Operations for the New BTID’ (an acronym for the Defence Technology and Industrial Base), General Juste emphasised the organisation’s long-standing ties with small and medium-sized enterprises. In this regard, he highlighted that the MCCE has been collaborating with SMEs for many years thanks to the agility and dynamism they bring. As General Juste explained, these qualities are essential for keeping pace with the speed demanded by today’s digital age – a pace of adaptation that the major tech giants are not always able to match.

The MCCE’s participation in this forum was rounded off by words from its institutional relations adviser, retired Commander Enrique Pérez de Tena, who was part of the panel of experts on ‘Sovereign cloud, critical data and digital autonomy’. In this context, he highlighted Spain’s technological standing and its ability to stand out amongst the leading nations on the international stage. “We have the necessary talent and entrepreneurial spirit, but we must overcome our fear of heights and state this loud and clear, particularly at European level.”

He also emphasised that, despite the progress made by the ever-evolving range of cybersecurity tools, we must never lose sight of the fact that “the human factor remains the weakest link, constituting the most accessible route for carrying out a cyberattack”.

In addition to presentations and panel discussions, the event featured parallel workshops entitled ‘Call to Act’, focusing on accelerating dual-use technologies, access to the supply chain, cybersecurity through the ‘Hack the Mission’ session, and data transfer and artificial intelligence applied to operational capability. Sergeant Alejandra Vicens, from the MCCE, was responsible for leading the workshop ‘Tech supplier readiness room: how to prepare technology for Defence’.

The forum also hosted a competition for SMEs and start-ups aimed at raising the profile of disruptive solutions in the fields of defence and technological sovereignty.

The Defence & Tech Summit by SMEs has established itself as a key meeting point between industry, talent and the defence sector, designed to accelerate technology transfer and actively integrate SMEs and start-ups into the value chain and national strategic resilience.