Sovereignty: The defense buzzword at the Singapore Airshow

With geopolitical uncertainty on the rise, defense buyers at the Singapore Airshow say they are prioritizing sovereignty, from local production and co‑development to owning the software and intellectual property that run their systems.

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

Executives at the show, which closes on Sunday, pointed to shifting alliances and tougher rhetoric from major powers as a catalyst for the trend.

“There is a notion that is coming around very explicitly … the notion of sovereignty,” Pascale Sourisse, senior executive vice president for international development at French aerospace and defense firm Thales, told CNBC.

Sourisse added that this mindset has helped drive defense spending higher as countries conclude they must look after their own security.

Chua Jin Kiat, executive vice president and head of international defense business at Singapore engineering and defense firm ST Engineering, echoed the sentiment, and said that over the last 12 months, U.S. President Donald Trump’s combative stance toward allies has pushed countries to realize that “we may not be able to depend on others.”

Under the Trump administration, the U.S. has pushed its allies to spend more on defense, with NATO committing to spend 5% of their GDP on defense by 2035.

Trump has threatened allies’ such as Canada and most recently Denmark over its territory of Greenland. He has also reportedly said he would sell allies weaker versions of American weapons “because someday, maybe they’re not our allies.”

Chua added that countries are recognizing that old alliances and alignments may not be “so enforceable or relevant” anymore, even organizations such as NATO.

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

A direct consequence of that shift is a renewed emphasis on boosting 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.

Sourisse said Thales is not only marketing its solutions but also planning to localize activities and competencies. The company has set up joint labs in Singapore with local agencies to develop capabilities on the ground.

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

For example, if ST Engineering can make advanced vehicles in a country with more space for production plants than Singapore, the company would collaborate and teach them how to build them in a co-production effort.

“For many of the big primes, they have to keep their factories at home running. They have got huge production plants, thousands of jobs, and the lights have to be kept on constantly.”

New kids on the block

Sovereignty extends beyond factories to software and intellectual property. Newer firms in the defense tech space are becoming aware of those demands and are structuring deals accordingly.

U.S.- based Shield AI, which develops autonomous warfare systems, signed a memorandum of understanding at the airshow to integrate its Hivemind autonomy software across selected ST Engineering platforms.

The company had earlier in 2025 partnered with the Republic of Singapore Air Force to use Hivemind to enhance the RSAF’s autonomous capabilities.

Brandon Tseng, co‑founder of Shield AI, told CNBC that Hivemind enables other companies and militaries to develop their own artificial-intelligence pilots locally, and Singapore would own that intellectual property.

“They can build AI pilots for whatever they want to do. We don’t own [the IP],” he told CNBC.

Tseng added that while countries will continue to buy some foreign hardware, many want to indigenize critical capabilities such as AI and autonomy.