Sign Up

The Defense Dossier

The Defense Dossier

The Defense Dossier

A living index of US and European defense-tech firms, scored by their commitment to the industry's most important conferences. Updated quarterly.

The Commitment Coefficient

Conference attendance is the single most under-priced signal in defense investing.

Booking a 50-square-meter stand at Eurosatory costs €40,000 before staff, hardware, or freight. Doing it three years running, across Eurosatory + DSEI + AUSA, requires roughly half a million dollars in annual sales-and-marketing burn that no pre-product company can sustain. Which means the conference floor is, in effect, an unforgeable proof-of-life signal: it tells you which firms have customers willing to take the meeting, which have product mature enough to demo, and which have the cash runway to keep showing up.

I track 87 and counting US and European defense-tech companies across the eight conferences that matter — Eurosatory, DSEI, AUSA, Milipol, MSPO, ILA Berlin, SOFINS, and Security & Policing — and assign each a Commitment Coefficient. The higher the score, the more chips a company has on the table.

The database below is the result. Sort it. Filter it. Argue with it.

The Database

Methodology

Eight conferences, three weight tiers:

  • Tier 1 (weight = 10): Eurosatory (Paris), DSEI (London), AUSA Annual (Washington DC)
  • Tier 2 (weight = 7): Milipol Paris, MSPO Kielce, ILA Berlin
  • Niche (weight = 5–6): SOFINS (France), Security & Policing (UK)

The score:

Commitment Coefficient = Σ (attendance × event weight)

A firm that exhibited at all three Tier 1 events scores 30 before any Tier 2 attendance is added. A firm that only hits one niche show scores 5. The spread separates serious operators from booth tourists.

Refresh cadence: Quarterly. Last updated April 2026. Next refresh: July 2026 (post-Eurosatory).

Sources: Conference rosters, official exhibitor lists, company disclosures, and direct verification of 2024 funding rounds and lead investors for the top 10.

Stories drawn from the database.

NRSS

The Defense Dossier is published by Offset. Tips, corrections, and additions: noah@offsetllc.com