Defense speech at the Singapore Airshow

As geopolitical uncertainty mounts, defense buyers at the Singapore Airshow say they are prioritizing sovereignty., from local manufacturing and co-development to owning the software and intellectual property that runs their systems.

Industry leaders say that control over hardware, software and supply chains is now a central factor in purchasing decisions.

Leaders at the show, which closes Sunday, pointed to shifting major-power alliances and tougher rhetoric as catalysts for the trend.

“The concept of sovereignty comes up very clearly,” noted Pascal Souriss, senior executive vice president for international development at the French aerospace and defense firm. Thales,” CNBC said.

Sourisse concluded that this thinking helped drive up defense spending because countries needed to ensure their own security.

Chua Jin Kiat, executive vice president and head of the international defense business at the Singaporean engineering and defense firm ST Engineeringunderpinning this view, US President Donald Trump’s belligerent stance toward allies over the past 12 months has pushed countries to realize that “we cannot depend on others.”

Under the Trump administration, the US has pushed its allies to spend more on defense, NATO has pledged to spend 5% of their GDP to defense By 2035.

Trump has threatened allies such as Canada and, more recently, Denmark, over the territory of Greenland. He also said that he would betray his allies weaker versions of American weapons “Because one day they might not be our allies.”

Chua said countries recognize that old alliances and alliances, even organizations such as NATO, may not be “as effective or relevant”.

“So you can be a member of NATO. But actually what we see at the end of today is, first of all, if I’m Germany, I’m Germany. If I’m Finland, I’m Finland,” he said.

A direct consequence of this shift is a renewed focus on increasing supply chain resilience. Companies told CNBC they are responding by localizing production, transferring know-how or partnering with domestic firms so customers can maintain and upgrade systems without long, fragile supply lines.

According to Souriss, Thales not only advertises its solutions, but also plans to localize activities and competencies. The company was founded Collaborative Laboratories in Singapore develop on-the-ground capabilities with local agencies.

ST Engineering’s Chua said the company, constrained by Singapore’s limited land area available for large factories, prefers overseas co-production.

For example, if ST Engineering could build advanced vehicles in a country with more space for manufacturing plants than Singapore, the company would work together and teach them how to build them in joint production.

“For many CEOs, they have to keep their factories running at home. They have huge factories, thousands of jobs, and the lights have to be on all the time.”

New kids on the block

Sovereignty extends beyond factories to software and intellectual property. New firms in the defense technology space are aware of these requirements and are structuring deals accordingly.

US-based Shield AI, which develops autonomous warfare systems, signed a memorandum of understanding integration of Hivemind autonomous software on selected ST Engineering platforms at the air show.

The company was previously in 2025 made a partnership The Republic of Singapore Air Force is using Hivemind to enhance the RSAF’s autonomous capabilities.

Brandon Tseng, founder of Shield AI, told CNBC that Hivemind will allow other companies and the military to develop their own AI pilots locally, and Singapore will own that intellectual property.

“They can make AI pilots for whatever they want. We don’t have (the IP),” he told CNBC.

Tseng said that while countries will continue to buy some foreign equipment, many people want to own important features such as AI and autonomy.