Message posted on
21 May 2026 by HIVE
On Monday, May 18, the 2026 Ravelijn Lecture took place at the Hive Aerospace Collective. In an aircraft maintenance hangar belonging to the Fokker Services Group at Business Park Aviolanda, adjacent to Woensdrecht Air Base, representatives from the Ministry of Defense, the business community, the education sector, research institutions, and government gathered to discuss the theme “Resilient Delta.” Historian and professor Beatrice de Graaf and Commander of the Air and Space Forces André Steur delivered inspiring keynote speeches on how society and the region can become more resilient in a time of increasing geopolitical tensions.
Be sure to check out the recap of the 2026 Ravelijn Lecture in the Province of North Brabant’s online magazine, featuring photos, interviews, and in-depth videos.
In her keynote address, Beatrice de Graaf took the audience on a journey through the historical significance of resilience. While the concept is often associated today with individual mental strength, resilience used to have primarily a collective and territorial meaning. A ravelin was originally a defensive structure in a moat that protected a fortress against external attacks. According to De Graaf, social resilience also emerged from local communities that shared responsibility for their safety and survival.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were no national security structures as we know them today. Citizens organized their own resilience through guilds and militia groups, driven by shared values. According to De Graaf, it is precisely these kinds of collective virtues—as an important foundation for resilience—that have faded into the background in our time. Her call, therefore, was to look to and learn from the past. Back then, too, there were threats, and people—in the Netherlands and in this region—proved to be highly resilient.
Lieutenant General André Steur then placed the topic within the current geopolitical context. He emphasized that the world has fundamentally changed and that security can no longer be taken for granted. Whereas in the 1990s the Netherlands could still choose where and when it wanted to contribute internationally, the current situation demands constant readiness and sustained endurance.
According to Steur, the Woensdrecht region plays a crucial role. Within the Hive Aerospace Collective ecosystem, the Ministry of Defense, companies, educational institutions, research organizations, and the government are collaborating to build a future-proof air force. This involves not only immediate operational readiness but also the ability to sustain operations over the long term. The latter, in particular, requires commitment from all of us. Steur explicitly referred to lessons learned from Ukraine. A conflict is not just about military strength, but also about a society’s ability to continue functioning. According to him, this requires cooperation across the board.
The core of his message was clear: true resilience arises when a society makes the shift from “I” to “we.” It is not only the Department of Defense that bears responsibility for security, but society as a whole. Steur called it “service before self”: taking responsibility for one another, for your family, neighborhood, village, city, and country.
During the networking portion of the Ravelijn Lecture, visitors were able to view concrete examples of civil-military cooperation at a business fair organized around the themes of joint training, collaboration, and innovation.
The following collaborations, projects, and solutions, among others, were presented:
The 2026 Ravelijn Lecture demonstrated that resilience extends far beyond military capability alone. It requires strong regional ecosystems in which government, the Ministry of Defense, the business community, and educational and research institutions work together, and in which citizens also do their part. It is precisely in the Flemish-Dutch delta region, where collaboration is deeply rooted in history, that significant opportunities for this exist.
Within the Hive Aerospace Collective, this collaboration takes place on a daily basis. Not only to be prepared for today’s challenges, but also to work together to build a resilient society for the future.
(photos: Dick Vermaas)
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