Event organized in scientific partnership
with the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI)
The Italian Air Force is organising the second edition of the international AeroSpace Power Conference (#ASPC2025), entitled “Fighting and Winning in the Sky Beyond the Next Decade”. The AeroSpace Power Conference 2025 will take place in Rome (Italy) from 8 to 9 May 2025, bringing together high-level military and civilian guests as well as over 1,500 participants from all over the world.
The event will be a unique opportunity to gather professionals from the public and private sectors, experts from academia and think tanks, as well as leading figures on the international stage, to provide a unique point of view on the concept of Aerospace Power as a determining “Military Instrument of Power”. In doing so, it will consider the fast-changing international security environment and the constant technological evolution of the Aerospace dimension.
As with the 2023 edition, the overarching goal is to develop new ideas, discuss possible ways forward, and exchange interdisciplinary points of view by presenting technology, innovation, and sustainability associated with the aerospace domain, with a view to sharing insights, reconnecting, and building new relationships.
The conference, organised into four panels interspersed with five keynote speakers, will focus on the following common thread:
1. The ability of partner nation armed forces to establish aerospace power superiority or dominance in future multi-domain operations and in an increasingly competitive, congested and contested environment;
2. Prioritisation for modernisation and future key elements required to achieve strategic and tactical objectives;
3. The importance of personnel, science, technology, networks, capabilities and systems as critical enablers in the next decade, for policies, doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures;
4. Space in future conflicts.
The 2025 AeroSpace Power Conference edition is organised in scientific partnership with the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI).
Attendance at the AeroSpace Power Conference 2025 is by invitation only.
Attendee accreditation
Inauguration of the AeroSpace Exhibition with the presence of Political Authority
Day I ASPC25 activities and opening remarks by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Italian Chief of Defence Staff, Political Authority
Break
Keynote Speaker 1General Bradley Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, United States Space Force (USA)
Panel I: Strategy & Policy
Moderator: Lt Gen (Retd) Giovanni Fantuzzi, Director of Centro Studi Militari Aerospaziali – CESMA (ITA)
Panelists:
Lunch break.
Keynote Speaker 2Dr Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada Group Chief Marketing Officer & Head of Corporate Social Responsibility (ITA).
Panel II: Technology Competition & Challenges
Moderator: Dr. Tommaso Ghidini, European Space Agency – ESA (ITA)
Panelists:
Keynote Speaker 3: Mr Masami OKA – Chief Executive GCAP International Government Organisation – GIGO (JPN).
End of activities for Day 1.
Attendee accreditation1
Begin Day II ASPC25 activities.
Keynote Speaker 4Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, Royal Air Force Chief of the Air Staff (UK).
Panel III: Doctrine and Leadership
Moderator: Dr. Alessandro Marrone, Head of Defence, Security and Space Programme at Istituto Affari Internazionali – IAI (ITA)
Panelists:
Coffee break
Talent-show hostDr Josef Aschbacher, ESA – European Space Agency Director General (AUT).
Panel IV: The Evolving Space Domain
Moderator: Col. Walter Villadei – Head of RAMI (Italian Air Force Representative) at AXIOM Space in Houston (ITA)
Panelists:
Closing remarks by Aeronautica Militare Chief of Staff and Political Authority
Lunch
End of Day II’s activities.
1 Only for attendees who are not already accredited on Day 1.
The conference features four panels covering complementary and interconnected topics. Before each panel, a keynote speaker will set the scene with a 30-minute speech. Each panel will feature at least five international speakers and will be chaired by a moderator. Following an initial round of remarks from each speaker, there will be a question-and-answer session chaired by the moderator.
GUEST SPEAKER 1
KEYNOTE SPEAKER 2
KEYNOTE SPEAKER 3
KEYNOTE SPEAKER 4
KEYNOTE SPEAKER 5
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Monday to Friday
9:00 - 13:00
14:00 - 18:00
The first panel will address the strategic level of Aerospace Power, taking into consideration the current international security environment and possible future scenarios.
The Russian war against Ukraine and the challenges posed by China have made the scenario of a Peer-to-peer conflict more likely than in the past three decades for NATO members and partners. As ongoing global geopolitical competition is expected to grow in the mid- to long-term, Western Air Forces have to prepare to fight and win. complex, large-scale conflicts First, in order to prevent them through effective deterrence, and second, should the latter fail, to put an end to war as soon as possible.
It is also necessary to Enhance the strategic dialogue between political leadership and the military in order to generate a shared, clearer and deeper understanding of threats and risks, necessary to make the best choices to protect populations and territories through the peace-crisis-conflict continuum. Such understanding should also be better communicated to public opinion in NATO countries and partners.
The past, present and likely future success of air forces largely depends on access to key technologies and advanced weapon systems. This, in turn, makes the aerospace and defence industry a critical partner and player. Public-private partnerships are therefore key to addressing the challenges posed by technological competition, and require a clear vision by the Air Forces on their future and a coherent strategy and policy.
The second panel will focus on technological competition and its related challenges, also considering industrial perspectives.
The armed forces will have to face the challenge of retaining their technological edge, operational sovereignty, and security of supply by relying on a wider, more diverse, and more globalised supply chain than in the past. This involves building novel international partnerships with traditional and new actors, including military and industrial ones, such as the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP).
NATO members and partners will have to adapt procurement models and practices in order to both accelerate the entry into service of new technologies and leverage the innovation driven by the civilian market. This challenge cannot be faced without a parallel change in industry paradigm aimed at shortening weapon systems delivery schedules following Armed Forces operational needs. Moreover, they will have to procure assets which are, at the same time, secure by design and built through an open architecture which enables more constant and efficient updates and upgrades.
Against this backdrop, AI poses novel challenges, risks and opportunities for the Military Instrument of Power, particularly concerning a variety of drones, including Collaborative Combat Aircraft. At the same time, hypersonic capabilities alter the equation between time and space by significantly affecting the required reaction time and underlining, at the same time, a key tenet of aerospace power such as speed. Furthermore, cyberspace, like the electromagnetic spectrum, has become increasingly relevant. Broadly speaking, the entire spectrum of Emerging and Disruptive Technologies constitutes the primary field of strategic competition across the globe.
The third panel will elaborate on non-material yet crucial elements of aerospace power such as doctrine and leadership, including the education and training of present and future aviators.
Doctrine evolves thanks to lessons learned from past and present conflicts. A large-scale, high-intensity, and three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine represents a watershed for NATO members and partners, yet an operations, particularly in urban areas.
At the same time, Doctrine is influenced by technological innovation and conceptualises System-of-systems and multi-domain operations have become increasingly important in this regard. AI is set to change the human-machine interface, The role of aviators in air operations and the whole “human in the loop” equation when it comes to decision-making. Next-generation aircraft will bring further changes and challenges for future pilots.
Due to the characteristics of the air domain, the force structure and the types of platforms in service, Leadership is extremely important for air forces at various levels of the chain of command. It includes the ability of timely decision-making and a risk-inclined attitude. Education and training will remain crucial to cultivate these and other aspects of leadership, but must evolve in light of changing doctrine and new technology. Against this backdrop, training in the virtual environment presents many advantages, but also risks to the quality of aviators trained with a more limited number of flying hours.
The fourth panel will focus on outer space as an environment for strategic competition.
Space is no longer solely an enabler for the military instrument of power but also a genuine operational domain in its own right, as recognised by NATO in 2019. While international cooperation and scientific research continue, strategic competition is taking place from Low Earth Orbit to cislunar space and beyond. New technologies and the presence of novel actors have made it more competitive and operationally challenging than ever.
Space is experiencing an exponential increase of private operators coupled with a relative decrease of the cost of available space technology. This in turn multiplies the debris and the related risks for space assets. The US and other major space powers are redefining their policies in this domain, and Europe faces a number of strategic choices in this regard.
Space infrastructures are subject to threats that are constantly and rapidly evolving, intensifying and diversifying, both non-kinetic (via cyber and electromagnetic spectrum) and kinetic, including a variety of counterspace capabilities, as they represent crucial assets for the military instrument of power through the peace-crisis-conflict continuum.
La Nuvola
Rome Convention Centre
Asia Avenue 40/44
00144 Rome (RM)
Conference
8 May 2025 (invitation-only access)
08:00 – 16:50
Exhibition
9 May 2025 (invitation-only access)
08:00 – 14:30
