We are pleased to announce that the NATO Modelling and Simulation Centre of Excellence, in cooperation with the University of Defense in Brno and selected academic and industrial partners, is organizing:

The 13th Annual MESAS 2026 Conference

(Modelling and Simulation for Autonomous Systems)

The conference will take place from Wednesday, 21 October to Friday, 23 October 2026, at PVA EXPO PRAGUE, Czech Republic, as part of the Future Forces Exhibition & Forum 2026.

MESAS 2026 is an international scientific conference bringing together experts from the military, academia, and industry to address the latest advances, challenges, and applications of autonomous systems through modelling and simulation (M&S). The conference is open to all contributors whose work aligns with its scope and objectives.

Held within the framework of the Future Forces Exhibition & Forum, MESAS 2026 provides a unique opportunity for cross-domain exchange among researchers, military professionals, and industry representatives, fostering dialogue between scientific research, operational needs, and defence innovation.

Since its inception in 2014, the MESAS conference series has built a strong international reputation, supported by more than a decade of continuous development in the field of modelling and simulation for autonomous systems.

Selected, peer-reviewed papers from previous MESAS editions have been regularly published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series, ensuring high visibility within the international research community. LNCS proceedings are widely indexed, including in the Web of Science Conference Proceedings Citation Index (CPCI), as well as Scopus, DBLP, and Google Scholar.

Call For Papers MESAS’26

We invite researchers, practitioners, and experts to submit original contributions presenting research, development, experiments, or applications in the field of autonomous systems and modelling and simulation.

The conference is currently in the abstract submission phase.

Please submit your abstracts via the Meteor platform, which will be used for both the selection process and the subsequent collection of papers. Authors who have participated in previous MESAS editions may use their existing Meteor credentials to log in.

 Key Dates

Topics 

Modeling and Simulation of Intelligent Systems – R&D and Application

• Modeling and simulation of AI-driven and autonomous systems
• Multi-agent systems, swarms, and cooperative autonomy
• Digital twins and co-simulation environments
• Distributed simulation and system-of-systems approaches
• Simulation-based training, experimentation, and wargaming
• Bridging the simulation–reality gap
• Tools and frameworks for multi-domain analysis
• Modeling and Simulation Concepts and Experiments
• Effectiveness, Reliability, and Cyber-Security Issues
• Verification, validation, and testing (V&V) of autonomous systems

Autonomous Systems and AI Impacts on the Future Warfare and Security Environment (Concepts, Applications, Challenges, Standards, etc.)

• AI-enabled autonomous systems across all operational domains (land, air, maritime, cyber, space)
• Human–machine teaming and AI-supported decision-making
• Multi-domain operations and system integration
• Robotics and unmanned systems in future warfare
• AI-driven sensing, communication, and situational awareness
• Agent-based, LLM-enabled, and adaptive autonomous systems
• Resilience and operation in contested and denied environments
• Security, Use of AxS as Lethal Instruments, Safety of Aviation
• Cybersecurity and resilience of AI-enabled systems
• Concepts and Visions of Future Warfare and Application
• Ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI in defence
• Trustworthy, explainable, and robust AI
• Emerging technologies and future challenges
• Impact of AI and autonomy on operations and society

In Conclusion

We look forward to receiving your contributions and to welcoming you to MESAS 2026 in Prague.

Please feel free to share this call within your professional networks.

For any inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact the organizing team.