AAD 2026 gets underway at Waterkloof

35 minutes ago

2 min read

By Garth Calitz

The 13th Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) Exhibition and Air Show is officially underway at Air Force Base Waterkloof in Pretoria. The speeches have been made, the formalities have been handled and the obligatory handshakes have been exchanged. Now it’s time for the action.

While the trade exhibition and conference get down to business, the skies over Waterkloof will also get busy, with airshow validation flights continuing throughout the trade days as participating aircraft and display teams run their displays through final validations ahead of the public flying programme this weekend. In other words, AAD 2026 has moved beyond the talking stage; now let's see if it will fly.

Running from 16 to 20 September, AAD 2026 marks the event's 25th anniversary and is being held under the theme “Africa’s Gateway to Defence and Aerospace Collaboration.” More than 30,000 trade visitors and dignitaries from more than 30 countries are expected, with the South African government previously confirming participation from more than 300 exhibitors and delegations from more than 50 countries.

The first three days are dedicated to the trade exhibition and conference, with the public air show taking over on 19 and 20 September. The exhibition covers air, land and maritime defence technologies, alongside a static aircraft display. Meanwhile, the skies over Waterkloof will not be entirely quiet during the trade days, with airshow validation and rehearsal flights taking place as participating aircraft and display teams work through their routines ahead of the public flying programme.

The first day of the AAD 2026 Conference is centred on "The Future of Warfare," featuring discussions on artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, drones, electronic warfare, cyber operations, and the growing significance of the interaction between manned and unmanned platforms. This year, unmanned platforms dominate the exhibition space, which seems to reflect the direction the world is heading.

That emphasis reflects just how rapidly the defence environment has changed since the previous AAD. Cheap drones, autonomous systems and networked sensors are no longer peripheral technologies; they are increasingly central to how modern militaries conduct surveillance, targeting and combat operations.

For South Africa's aerospace and defence sector, AAD also remains an important opportunity to demonstrate local engineering and industrial capability. Denel, for example, is participating with a focus on South African technology and defence-industry capability.

And then, of course, there is the flying.

The static aircraft displays and exhibition activities may take centre stage during the initial days, but it's over the weekend that AAD is expected to shift from a formal defence conference into a captivating aviation spectacle—at least, that's what we hope — with aircraft, helicopters and demonstration teams taking to the skies above Waterkloof.

Flightline Weekly will be at AAD 2026 throughout the show, bringing readers updates from the exhibition floor, conference, static displays and flying programme.

In other words: the coffee is on, the delegates are talking, the aircraft are parked — and Waterkloof is officially in AAD mode.