As the only European business-jet player facing North American leaders, and a pillar of national defense, Dassault Aviation lives sovereignty "in its genes." At Tech For Industry Show 2026 (Paris Expo Porte de Versailles), its Digital leader delivered a no-nonsense keynote on digital sovereignty — a term he approaches methodically rather than with "buzz."

Sovereignty is first a matter of state, the speaker recalls — and for Europe it remains complicated, each nation exercising its own. Transposed to a company, it boils down to two requirements: not depending on extraterritorial laws in one's digital operations, and staying resilient — continuing to function "even if France is at war tomorrow." For a defense manufacturer whose aircraft must last up to 70 years (the Mirage 2000s delivered to Ukraine attest to this), ensuring mission continuity and protecting intellectual property is vital: "lose that, and we're done."

The figures set the scene: 54,000 cybersecurity incidents in France in Q1 2026, with France ranking second in data-breach consequences. Dassault Aviation monitors its supply chain and observes on average two attacks per week, of varying severity — each alert mobilizing internal cyber teams to assess the impact. Protection against extraterritorial laws meets the intellectual-property stake here: not having one's know-how stolen, the core of the company's survival.

True to a risk-based approach rather than an ideological one, the speaker acknowledges that the cloud provides faster access to innovation, and estimates the cyber risk "roughly equivalent" to that of a well-protected internal infrastructure. But he points to cloud-specific risks:

The most concerning risk is the kill switch — service interruption, already proven (Microsoft applied it under US injunction for certain figures). Add the impossibility of auditing major providers' data centers ("forbidden"), the question of reversibility (cost and feasibility of exit, egress fees far higher than ingress), and poorly interoperable data formats — a technological dependence that also applies on-premise.

The days of freezing software without updating it are over: security patches force you to stay "hooked" to the vendor — hence exposed to price hikes. The speaker sees an opportunity for French startups, provided they don't seek to "hammer" their customers, in a period of seeking alternatives where "US companies are testing us on the red line" of pricing.

France's ANSSI "does a great job," and the SecNumCloud framework provides a solid foundation. But the trusted cloud costs 15 to 30% more, raising the question of the price of sovereignty. For the military domain (classified data with no official cloud hosting), on-premise remains mandatory.

The speaker advocates — including through European lobbying — for European digital champions, regretting the contradictory signals sent to small vendors. Two strong convictions: Industry 4.0 is a local opportunity (latency requires proximity — "the speed of light will remain a local advantage"); but sovereignty must never justify buying underperforming solutions — "I'm not going to pay four times more for something that works less well." Otherwise, "there will be disappointments."

To avoid each prime contractor (Airbus, Safran, Thales, Dassault) asking suppliers for "almost the same thing but not quite," the sector created Boost Aerospace, with pooled services: AirCyber (supply chain cyber awareness and protection, relaunched via a "cyber boost" program at GIFAS level) and AirSupply (connecting the subcontracting chain for orders, quotes and deliveries). The goal: simplify SMEs' lives and manage dependencies with the assurance of major contractors.

The major challenge remains secure collaboration between manufacturers. A telling anecdote: on the SCAF program, a European state had to juggle each manufacturer's keys to browse "half-common" spaces — hence the Aérosec program, a "France Connect for defense" at European scale, still without a demonstrator.

Dassault Aviation built its own AI stack (inference "holds up," scale training remains out of reach). Vigilance focuses on data platforms that invite you to "come with your use cases" without saying how the know-how will be used: the risk that intellectual property "disappears into AI models." Teams use advanced tools (including Claude Code) only on non-confidential data, to build skills without taking risks. On European models, the speaker cites Mistral ("almost the only ones able to train at scale") and OVHcloud's announcements.

A concrete illustration: because its teams working on the Falcon must collaborate with US suppliers (Honeywell, Rolls-Royce, Collins), Dassault Aviation needs high-performing tools. Lacking an equivalent European champion, the company migrated its Microsoft ecosystem (previously on-premise) to Bleu, protected by SecNumCloud (thus shielded from extraterritorial laws): "my risks are neither better nor worse than before, but I access the latest technologies." Hence two distinct solutions — one for the civilian world, one for the military.

What is digital sovereignty for a company? According to Dassault Aviation, it comes down to two requirements: not depending on extraterritorial laws in one's digital operations, and staying resilient (functioning even in wartime), which requires mastering one's dependencies.

What are the main cloud risks? The kill switch (service interruption under foreign injunction), the impossibility of auditing data centers, reversibility (costs and egress fees to exit), and price hikes linked to technological dependence.

What is SecNumCloud? It's France's ANSSI framework qualifying trusted cloud offerings. It provides a solid protection foundation, but with a premium of around 15 to 30% over a standard cloud.

Does sovereignty justify buying less performant solutions? No, according to the speaker: sovereignty must not sacrifice usability, quality or competitiveness, at the risk of disappointment. Truly high-performing European champions are needed.

This conference was recorded at Tech For Industry Show 2026, the B2B trade show for industrial transformation (Smart Manufacturing, AI, Supply Chain) at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Watch the full keynote video above, and join us on May 19–20, 2027, Hall 7, for the next edition.