The NATO Inno­va­tion Range Capa­bil­i­ty Demon­stra­tor event in Octo­ber show­cas­es exper­tise in defence and secu­ri­ty tech­nol­o­gy

The NATO Inno­va­tion Range Capa­bil­i­ty Demon­stra­tor test­ing event will be held in Oulu, Fin­land, on 28–29 Octo­ber 2026. The event will bring togeth­er devel­op­ers of defence and secu­ri­ty tech­nol­o­gy, nation­al stake­hold­ers and research organ­i­sa­tions, NATO, and inter­na­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the sec­tor. 

The event is an invi­ta­tion-only gath­er­ing for a select group of par­tic­i­pants. It is not open to the gen­er­al pub­lic. The Defence Admin­is­tra­tion, Business­Oulu, the Dig­i­tal Defence Ecosys­tem (DDE), and DEFINE are respon­si­ble for the prac­ti­cal arrange­ments for the event, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with NATO. 

The NATO Inno­va­tion Range (NIR) is a NATO-led col­lab­o­ra­tive frame­work aimed at accel­er­at­ing the devel­op­ment, test­ing, and deploy­ment of tech­nolo­gies crit­i­cal to defence and secu­ri­ty. At NIR test­ing events, new tech­nolo­gies and solu­tions can be tri­alled in real-world oper­a­tional envi­ron­ments and their func­tion­al­i­ty and inter­op­er­abil­i­ty assessed as part of broad­er sys­tems and oper­a­tional frame­works. The Min­istry of Defence acts as the nation­al author­i­ty respon­si­ble for the NATO Inno­va­tion Range Future Con­nec­tiv­i­ty (NIR FC) frame­work. 

Future Con­nec­tiv­i­ty com­bines next-gen­er­a­tion com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nolo­gies and autonomous sys­tems

The NIR FC frame­work pro­vides an oppor­tu­ni­ty to bring togeth­er nation­al test­ing and devel­op­ment envi­ron­ments, tech­no­log­i­cal exper­tise, and oth­er stake­hold­ers whose inno­va­tions can be used to cre­ate new capa­bil­i­ties for defence and secu­ri­ty author­i­ties. 

The NIR FC ini­tia­tive exam­ines the inter­op­er­abil­i­ty of future com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nolo­gies and autonomous sys­tems. The theme cov­ers, amongst oth­er things, 5G and 6G tech­nolo­gies, as well as oth­er advanced data trans­mis­sion and con­nec­tiv­i­ty solu­tions. 

– Oulu’s strong tech­no­log­i­cal exper­tise, com­bined with a large-scale test­ing envi­ron­ment such as Oulu­Zone, pro­vides an excel­lent set­ting for devel­op­ing and demon­strat­ing solu­tions relat­ed to the Future Con­nec­tiv­i­ty theme. Through inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion such as NIR, we can also demon­strate Finland’s nation­al test­ing and devel­op­ment capa­bil­i­ties and how they can be utilised as part of broad­er NATO coop­er­a­tion. These oppor­tu­ni­ties are par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant for advanc­ing tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment, but also from the per­spec­tive of cre­at­ing inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties for Finnish defence and secu­ri­ty tech­nol­o­gy, says Jus­si Lep­onie­mi, Account Man­ag­er at Business­Oulu. 

Oulu’s ver­sa­tile tech­nol­o­gy test­ing envi­ron­ment enables the NATO Inno­va­tion Range Capa­bil­i­ty Demon­stra­tor event  

Oulu’s inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned tech­nol­o­gy ecosys­tem is built around con­cepts like wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tions, dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies, and advanced research. The exper­tise cov­ers, for exam­ple, 5G and 6G tech­nolo­gies, sen­sor tech­nol­o­gy, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, autonomous sys­tems, embed­ded tech­nolo­gies, edge com­put­ing, and cyber secu­ri­ty. 

– The event is being held in Oulu at the Oulu­Zone test­ing envi­ron­ment, where tech­nolo­gies can be test­ed in real-world and chang­ing con­di­tions. Togeth­er with var­i­ous stake­hold­ers, we are devel­op­ing the area into a lead­ing devel­op­ment envi­ron­ment in Fin­land to sup­port com­pa­nies in bring­ing dual-use and DefenceTech solu­tions to mar­ket,” says Heik­ki Huh­mo, Project Man­ag­er at Business­Oulu. 

The pur­pose of the Capa­bil­i­ty Demon­stra­tor event is to present the NATO Inno­va­tion Range Future Con­nec­tiv­i­ty (NIR FC) ini­tia­tive estab­lished upon a joint Finnish and Swedish ini­tia­tive, as well as nation­al test­ing, eval­u­a­tion, val­i­da­tion, and ver­i­fi­ca­tion capa­bil­i­ties (TEVV), to Finnish stake­hold­ers and experts from NATO and allied nations. The TEVV capa­bil­i­ties and tech­nolo­gies to be show­cased include, amongst oth­er things, drone coun­ter­mea­sures and sen­sor fusion, AI-based com­mand and con­trol and sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness, resilient com­mu­ni­ca­tions (5G/6G), and the inte­gra­tion of unmanned sys­tems. The event will also high­light Finland’s nation­al test­ing and devel­op­ment capa­bil­i­ties more broad­ly. 

The Nato Inno­va­tion Range Capa­bil­i­ty Demon­stra­tor event’s arrange­ments for Oulu­Zone will affect nor­mal use of the area. Oulu­Zone is reserved for event arrange­ments from 22 to 29 Octo­ber, and the area will be closed to oth­er use from 27 to 29 Octo­ber. The clo­sure of the area is nec­es­sary to ensure the smooth run­ning of the event, the safe­ty of par­tic­i­pants, and the prac­ti­cal arrange­ments required for the event. The area will reopen for nor­mal use on 30 Octo­ber 2026.