Commerce, Alabama defense firms seek growth opportunities in Belgium, Germany

What this means

Montgomery, Alabama – The Alabama Department of Commerce’s Global Business Office and Export Alabama are leading a week-long, aerospace and defense-focused international business development mission to Belgium and Germany this week. The delegation includes five Alabama firms and is designed to help them expand their global footprints. Company leadership will participate in pre-arranged business-to-business meetings where they can leverage their expertise and products to forge valuable new partnerships and access emerging business opportunities.

Official release

Source material from Alabama Department of Commerce. The wording below is the issuer’s statement.

Montgomery, Alabama – The Alabama Department of Commerce’s Global Business Office and Export Alabama are leading a week-long, aerospace and defense-focused international business development mission to Belgium and Germany this week.

The delegation includes five Alabama firms and is designed to help them expand their global footprints. Company leadership will participate in pre-arranged business-to-business meetings where they can leverage their expertise and products to forge valuable new partnerships and access emerging business opportunities.

“One of Alabama’s greatest strengths internationally is the network of trusted relationships we have built with government and industry partners around the world,” said Christina Stimpson, Commerce’s Chief Officer of Global Business.

Stimpson said the mission demonstrates the value of those partnerships, with NRW.GlobalBusiness in Germany and Flanders Investment & Trade, AWEX, Skywin, GIWAS, Flanders Space and Agoria BSDI in Belgium helping connect Alabama companies directly into some of Europe’s most important aerospace and defense ecosystems.

“Combined with our engagement with the U.S. Mission to NATO, these relationships create opportunities not only for Alabama companies to expand internationally, but also to showcase our state as a strategic location for European companies seeking to grow in the United States,” Stimpson said.

Alabama’s aerospace and defense sector includes more than 400 companies from 30 countries and had a total economic impact of more than $23 billion in 2023.

“The strength of this mission is the level of access our international partners have helped us create for Alabama companies,” said David Sides, International Project Manager for Commerce.

“Working with our partners in Belgium and Germany, we have been able to build a program that connects the delegation with companies, clusters and decision-makers across the aerospace and defense sector. Our partnership with the U.S. Mission to NATO adds another important dimension, giving companies direct insight into current Alliance policy priorities, defense industrial base activity and emerging business opportunities.

“Our job is to help Alabama companies understand that environment, make the right connections and turn those relationships into long-term international business.”

Alabama firms

The Alabama businesses participating in the expansion opportunity mission are:

IERUS Technologies in Huntsville provides specialized engineering expertise for advanced defense and commercial technologies;

Maximum Technology Corporation in Huntsville specializes in software development, data analytics and system tests and evaluations;

MaxVision in Madison designs and manufactures rugged portable computer hardware engineered for demanding mission environments;

Relogic Research in Huntsville provides applied research, production development and fabrication services;

SEA Wire and Cable in Madison is a distributor of mil-aero wire, cable, tubing, EMI/RFI backshells and other harnessing solutions used in critical military and commercial applications.

Several of the companies have participated in other Commerce-led trade missions. IERUS President and Founder Jason Keen pointed to the business maxim “contacts before contracts” and said Commerce helped the company establish relationships in Poland on a 2025 trip and globally at the 2024 Farnborough International Airshow.

“Particularly with Poland, the trip included educational opportunities that explained what is required to do business in Poland and with Polish companies,” Keen said. “We would have been utterly unprepared without that help.”

In 2025, Alabama companies exported a combined $23.7 billion in goods and services to 190 countries. Missions like this week’s give companies access to business development opportunities, industry relationships and potential customers or partners that would be harder to develop independently.

Keen said this week’s trip comes at an important time in the sector he operates in.

“While the Belgian, and even the German, market is relatively small compared to the U.S., by partnering in those countries, you can find opportunities across all of the E.U. and NATO nations,” he said. “The E.U. GDP is over 70% of the U.S., and the NATO spend is another 75% on top of what the U.S. spends. That’s a pretty big market and with countries that are relatively easy to export to. But it means finding the right partners for the right products and services.

“That’s our goal.”

Release text attributed to Alabama Department of Commerce. Consult the official publication for any subsequent corrections or updates.