Localization of Military Defense Industries in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Insights from His Majesty’s Recent Tours to France and the Czech Republic

His Majesty King Abdullah II's visit to the Czech Republic on September 18, 2026, and his meeting with the heads of several Czech companies specializing in defense industries, was not an event isolated from his extensive and tireless royal tours aimed at building and developing Jordan’s defense and technological partnerships. The Prague visit came directly on the heels of signing a joint defense cooperation agreement between Jordan and France in Paris, reaffirming the royal determination to go to great lengths to preserve Jordan's security and stability while enhancing its military capabilities and industries.

His Majesty’s blessed efforts in opening windows of cooperation for Jordan with major nations and leading military manufacturing and development companies call for maximizing these achievements and expanding them toward the horizon of conceptualizing a project for "localizing modern defense industries, acquiring knowledge and technology, and ensuring sovereignty over them." The new generations of military systems are no longer limited to manufacturing equipment, vehicles, and engines alone, but heavily rely on the smart software that operates them. While some might view the idea of "localizing high-tech smart industries" as facing challenges due to strict international restrictions, financial hurdles, and technical complexities, it is far from impossible.

Revisiting His Majesty's meetings in Prague and his review of equipment, AI-driven applications, and technologies developed by manufacturing companies, cooperation with the Czech Republic takes on a critical dimension in localizing smart defense industry technology. This prompts us to explore the capabilities of certain Czech companies in this field:

 Group OMNIPOL: Comprising renowned aircraft manufacturing companies such as Aircraft Industries, ERA, and MESIT, it stands as one of Europe's prominent defense and technological industrial groups. It excels in developing and producing high-tech smart systems and passive surveillance systems for air, land, and sea targets. Its subsidiary, ERA, serves as the group's "smart jewel" due to its capability to track targets without detection by enemy radars (Source: www.omnipolgroup.cz).  

 Group CSG: Features companies specializing in radars, command and control systems, and is actively developing an intensive strategy to integrate artificial intelligence into its military and aerial industries to enhance its technological superiority and deliver innovative, cost-effective defense solutions (Source: defence.csg.com).

In France—the stop preceding the Prague visit that reflected His Majesty’s advanced vision—we witness the remarkable evolution of French defense industries and their accelerated move toward integrating artificial intelligence and algorithms into the military sector. This is reinforced by the revelation made days ago by Thales (one of France's largest defense equipment companies) regarding an AI-powered system designed to support military operations named HexaForce. This system is capable of collecting, analyzing, and correlating data from diverse sources, planning operations using generative AI, and operating flexibly in alignment with each nation's defense strategy and policies (Source: www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/ar/news).

Notably, the company linked this smart system to the concept of national sovereignty. Thales CEO Patrice Caine emphasized the importance of sovereignty and data control, stressing the necessity for European nations to avoid relying on American companies, which currently lead the world in AI development.

This specific point brings us back to the core of our previous article, "National Sovereignty Over Digital Data – Toward a Jordanian AI in a Box Model", highlighting that controlling and possessing smart systems is no longer a luxury. This imperative amplifies significantly when dealing with defense industries; everyone seeks military superiority, but the true cornerstone is owning the technology, knowledge, and sovereignty over them. As Jordan moves closer to localizing its military defense industries, its need grows exponentially to build a national digital capability capable of absorbing these industries, especially as Western defense industries march forcefully toward building increasingly complex systems.

To remain realistic at the current stage, we must evaluate our capacity to transform our relationships into sustainable projects and partnerships that gradually transition us from importing products to participating in their production, manufacturing, securing their data, storing and processing it within a secure national environment, and controlling their operating algorithms. Consequently, we may need:

 An accelerated institutional drive running parallel to the momentum of royal foreign visits to expand horizons for external defense and technological cooperation, leveraging every new agreement to acquire and localize knowledge.

 Formulating a practical concept to identify requirements for localizing future defense industries, encompassing smart software and data, and preparing qualified human competencies for execution.

 The ultimate objective of establishing an artificial intelligence project under national sovereignty, nested within a broader vision for national security and the defense industry ecosystem.

Before concluding, we must not overlook the progress achieved by the Jordan Armed Forces - The Arab Army, under the direct and gracious patronage of His Majesty, along the path of modernization, development, and the integration of technology and smart applications. Therefore, we are not starting from scratch; we possess the capability to build upon this progress and propel it toward new levels that keep pace with rapid transformations in smart defense industries and data sovereignty.

About the Author:

Talal Bawaneh is a strategic researcher, analyst, and lawyer holding an M.A. in Counter-Terrorism and Extremism Strategies, with 30 years of experience in regional conflict analysis and strategic foresight scenario-building. His research focuses on institutional memory, knowledge retention, and digital persona/twin engineering using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and artificial intelligence frameworks.

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