DSET 2026 Arrives at Cheltenham at a Key Moment for Military Training

MS&T Special Correspondent Andy Fawkes looks ahead to the Defence Simulation, Education and Training (DSET) event.

European NATO members increased military spending at the fastest rate since 1953 in 2025, with the continent as a whole up 14%, according to Swedish think tank SIPRI. The political pressure to show that the money is buying visible hardware has rarely been greater. But as defence budgets across the alliance reach historic levels, an important question is where training and simulation sit in the allocation. That issue will undoubtedly be addressed at DSET, which opens at its new home in Cheltenham on 23 June, and the current spending debate gives it unusual force.

Uncrewed systems are the most immediate example of why the training question matters. Drones have been scaled from a relatively marginal capability to operationally decisive since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, creating training demands that defence establishments across the alliance are still working to meet. DSET is directly engaging with that agenda, and Brigadier Stu Nasse, Director of the UK Uncrewed Systems Centre, is among the keynote speakers. For the first time, the new Cheltenham venue allows live drone and ground robotics demonstrations alongside the simulation programme, a signal that operator training is being taken as seriously at DSET as the hardware itself.

The pace at which uncrewed capabilities are changing illustrates a wider challenge, in that the ability to train operators quickly and at scale matters as much as the procurement decision itself. A cross-service game-based simulation might cost £10,000 and can be updated as requirements change, yet the business case to approve one can take longer than the threat it was designed to address. That pattern is not unique to any single nation; it recurs across the alliance, which is partly why DSET draws attendees from 44 countries, with military personnel making up around 70% of the expected 2,000-plus crowd at Cheltenham this year. The seniority of those attending speaks for itself, with Lieutenant Generals Anna-Lee Reilly and Zac Stenning and Major Generals Chris Barry and Ollie Kingsbury among the keynote speakers, alongside NATO SHAPE and representatives from the Canadian, Dutch, Brazilian and Romanian armed forces. DSET's invite-only speaker model keeps the programme current, with sessions this year spanning future force, applied AI, uncrewed systems training and cross-alliance simulation standards, with industry showcases from a range of large and small companies.

The move from Bristol's Ashton Gate to Cheltenham Racecourse reflects a decade of growth from 99 attendees to over 2,000, and the new venue's integrated layout is designed to keep that community talking across the full three days rather than losing half the room to the exhibition floor whenever a session starts.

The money flowing into European defence budgets will eventually shape what the alliance can do in the field. Whether a proportionate share reaches training and simulation, or whether it follows the familiar pattern of flowing first to platforms, is precisely the argument DSET exists to advance, at a moment when it probably has more traction than at any point in the event's 10-year history.

DSET 2026 runs 23–25 June at Cheltenham Racecourse. Full programme at dset.co.uk.

Reference
www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2026/global-military-spending-rise-continues-european-and-asian-expenditures-surge