The Call for Nominations for the 2026 Defence Media Awards is now open.  Here is an opportunity to ensure global industry recognition for the very best work in defence journalism and publishing.

The list of award categories and nominations procedure is as follows –

Best New Journalist – sponsored by NAMMO

For journalists with no more than 5 years’ experience in defence journalism

The Andrew Drwiega Award for the Best Rotorcraft submission

The Best Defence Data Analytics submission– sponsored by SAIC

The Best Naval Systems Submission - sponsored by Leidos

The Best Training, Simulation and Readiness Submission

The Best Breaking News Submission

The Best Multimedia Military Submission

The Best Land Systems Submission - sponsored by Northrop Grumman

The Best Defence Electronics Submission – sponsored by General Dynamics

The Best Integrated Maritime Defence Submission – sponsored by Fincantieri

Exploring the convergence of naval operations with emerging technologies such as AI, cyber and autonomy

The Best Missile Defense Submission– sponsored by Northrop Grumman

The Best National Security Space Submission - sponsored by SES

The Best Un-Manned Systems Submission – sponsored by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems

The Best Military Aviation Submission - sponsored by Honeywell

The Best Technology Submission – sponsored by L3Harris

The Best Cyber Security Submission - sponsored by The Sierra Nevada Corporation

The Best Mobile Combat Systems Submission - sponsored by Elbit Systems of America

Best Military Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) submission – sponsored by Anduril

The John Morrocco Award for Best In-depth Defence Reporting - sponsored by Boeing

The Outstanding Achievement Award - sponsored by amentum

 
Please submit your nominations via the following link - https://dma.awardmgt.com/entries/

If you have any questions, please submit queries to themediadoctor@aol.com 

How to make Nominations

When making a nomination the timeframe for articles being submitted is June 2025 to the end of June 2026.

Please submit your entries by clicking on the following link - https://dma.awardmgt.com/entries - or the other links on this page. This will take you to the nominations portal, you will be asked for an email and password and from there you can submit nominations for any of the above categories. The portal allows you to edit, change, or add more information or more nominations.

Once you have made a nomination you should receive confirmation that it has been received. You can then submit more nominations for other categories or log out and come back again when you wish to make more nominations or edit the existing nominations.

If you have any problems, please submit queries to themediadoctor@aol.com

Please ensure that Nominations are limited to 1 entry per category, in the event of a nominee being nominated twice for the same category the nominee will be asked for their preference as to which nomination goes forward for judging. The reason for limiting nominations to one per category is twofold. Firstly, it is to ensure the judges are presented with the very best work. Secondly, on previous occasions, when two nominations per category were allowed, this resulted in the judges’ votes being split between the two nominations and the nominee losing out when the scores were compiled.

Deadline for Nominations

The closing date for nominations is Friday 3rd July 2026

I wish you every success with your nominations, if you have any questions or wish to discuss in more detail please feel free to contact me - themediadoctor@aol.com