Eurosatory focuses mostly on land and air-to-land warfare, including tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, drones, counter-drone systems, missiles, air defense, communications, battlefield software, logistics, robotics, military medicine, and homeland security systems.

Kepler Cheuvreux equity analyst Aymeric Poulain attended the event and spoke with top executives from European defense giants Thales, Exosens, Leonardo, Hensoldt, and Rheinmetall. He also met with Safran executives at the company's headquarters.

Poulain penned a note on Thursday titled "Game of Drone," in which he was able to "take the pulse of the sector" to determine the "latest product trends."

He said European defense sentiment remains firmly bullish, with Eurosatory underscoring enthusiasm among investors and industry interest in drones, counter-drone systems, missiles, lasers, and unmanned platforms.

The war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East have accelerated this defense shift, demonstrating how low-cost drones, autonomous systems, and robotic platforms are increasingly dominating the modern battlefield and forcing legacy defense primes to adapt their portfolios at lightning speed.

Poulain's summary of what he saw at the defense show:

1. We accompanied a group of investors at the Eurosatory trade show for the defence and security industry in Paris early this week. The show was an occasion to meet with Thales, Exosens, Leonardo, Hensoldt and Rheinmetall and take the pulse of the sector and the latest product trends. We also met Safran at their headquarters. This always proposes a sample of our notes from the visit.

2. The atmosphere was buoyant amidst booming times for European defence. One of the most striking features of the show was the prominent display of drones and counter-drones, both as an add-on to incumbent core portfolios or as the core product for defence tech players. The Ukraine delegation came in force this year (even as the country is not allowed to export its production yet), underlining the significant use of drones and unmanned equipment, including underwater unmanned systems, in combat operations in the country. We talked to one of the association's representatives and were shocked to hear that production, which was 2m last year and was expected to reach 4m this year, is actually on track to reach 7m by the end of the year!