Delft, Eindhoven and Twente to get a national defence tech hub
One of the first challenges for its new national institute is keeping watch over the North Sea around the clock.
Published on November 7, 2026
Derk Boswijk, NIDT © defensie
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How do you keep watch over the Dutch North Sea around the clock? The Ministry of Defence is putting that question to startups, established companies and researchers. Possible answers range from new surveillance sensors to autonomous patrol systems. The challenge is among the first for the newly launched National Institute for Defence Technology (NIDT), which plans to have regional hubs in Delft, Eindhoven and Twente.
Defence launched the institute on 5 November to get new technology into military use faster and build up the capacity to produce it in the Netherlands. The institute will be based in Amsterdam, with hubs near the technical universities in Delft, Eindhoven and Twente. The exact location of the hubs is still unclear.
From prototype to production
The institute will start with problems defined by the armed forces and look for teams that can help solve them. It will also visit universities and universities of applied sciences to find out what researchers are already working on. Promising ideas can be developed with the institute into working prototypes. Defence says it wants to test new technology under operational conditions, where military users can see whether it works in practice.
The institute will work at both ends of that process. Some projects will start with an idea for a military capability that does not exist yet. Others will start with technology already mature enough to move into production. Money has been set aside to buy successful inventions, although no figures have been given. For a young company, that potential first order matters. It gives the team a reason to plan for production while it is still working out whether the technology meets the customer’s needs.
What Twente already has
Twente brings together radar and sensor expertise, high-tech manufacturers and places to test hardware. Thales, Aeronamic and Demcon are among the companies active in the region. At Twente Airport, the former military airfield’s nearly three-kilometre runway and controlled airspace are already used to test uncrewed aircraft. Developers of experimental drones can use the site to assess whether their technology is ready for flight tests.
Defence has already identified Twente Airport as a destination for planned military cargo-drone flights from Deelen. That is a separate programme, but it illustrates what the region can offer a national defence technology network. A team developing an uncrewed system needs engineers and suppliers, and it also needs somewhere to fly it.
The NIDT will start as a separate company within TNO’s holding structure, with its own management and supervisory board. TNO is providing a temporary home so the institute can begin operating while Defence considers a permanent structure. The North Sea challenge gives it an early test of its own. Can it take a problem as broad as keeping watch over Dutch waters and get companies and researchers far enough along that the armed forces can try their solutions at sea?