27th Annual Military Airlift & Air-to-Air Refuelling Conference to Convene in Florence

The 27th annual Military Airlift and Air-to-Air Refuelling Conference will convene senior military commanders, programme managers, and industry leaders in Florence, Italy, to address how NATO’s expanding defence spending commitments will be translated into operational air mobility capabilities.

At NATO’s Ankara Summit, allies reaffirmed their pledge to hit 5% of GDP on defence by 2035, backed by a new $50 billion precision strike coalition and €70 billion in Ukraine support for 2026 and the shift from pledge to procurement is already visible, from Italy’s €1.4 billion Airbus A330 MRTT deal to NATO’s new multinational A400M fleet, Denmark’s move to join the MRTT tanker pool, and fresh EU funding for automatic air-to-air refuelling technology. View the new 2026 brochure here.

These developments sit squarely at the centre of the agenda for this year’s Military Airlift and Air-to-Air Refuelling Conference, now in its 27th year and firmly established as Europe’s premier forum for the air mobility and tanking community. Where you will also get an exclusive site visit. Taking place in Florence, Italy, from 2–3 December, with an annual site visit on 4 December, the conference will bring together senior military leaders, programme managers and industry partners to translate this year’s spending commitments into workable, interoperable capability.

Attendees will hear directly from those shaping the response, including:

• Major General Alessandro De Lorenzo, Commander, Mobility and Support Forces, Italian Air Force, host nation keynote on scaling airlift and AAR capabilities in the wake of the Airbus deal
• General Randall Reed, Commander, US Transportation Command, a transatlantic perspective on global mobility demand
• Brigadier General Michele A. Lo Bianco, 618th Air Operations Center, global mobility operations at scale
• Programme leads from the Multinational MRTT Unit, the Binational Air Transport Squadron, the Swedish Air Force’s C-390 transition team, and NATO’s Airlift Coordination Centre, how pooled fleets, shared flying hours and multinational squadrons are answering the interoperability challenge no single nation’s budget can solve alone

As fleets modernise and multilateral organisations such as the MCCE, EATC, SAC and MMF take on a greater share of allied airlift and tanking, the enduring challenge remains the one industry has wrestled with for years: getting sovereign, multinational and industry systems to work together in the air, not just on paper. With Ankara’s spending commitments now needing to be converted into contracts, and NATO’s Secretary General publicly anticipating “tens of billions of dollars” in new defence agreements, Florence in December offers industry a direct route to the military leaders and programme decision-makers making those calls.

This conference offers unmatched access to the operators, acquisition professionals and senior commanders shaping European air mobility policy from OEMs and parts producers to AAR-as-a-service providers and command-and-control enablers.

Book now and get an early bird discount, with savings of up to £400 for those who register in advance. Or explore the event more here.

To secure a place, visit: www.military-airlift.com