Thales in ‘quite advanced’ talks with NATO countries on AI-powered command software

PARIS — French defense-technology firm Thales is “quite advanced” in discussions with a number of NATO countries about using its artificial intelligence-powered command-and-control system HexaForce, said the company’s vice president for multi-domain operations, Patrick Moreau.

Thales announced the availability of HexaForce last week, after testing it during NATO’s Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise, or CWIX, in Poland in June. The company is positioning the system as a multi-domain C2 “overlay” that can plug into legacy and national systems from the strategic to the tactical level, while allowing users to choose their own AI models and avoid vendor lock-in.

NATO is increasingly turning to AI to harness growing amounts of data in command and control, and already operates a C2 system supplied by United States-based Palantir Technologies. Meanwhile, the European Union is looking to accelerate development and deployment of European capabilities amid concern about sovereign control of the technology underpinning them.

“I don’t want to go too much into detail. but we are quite advanced in some discussions with some NATO countries so far,” Moreau told Defense News in a Sept. 24 interview.

As European and NATO militaries look to scale operations from brigade-level formations to army corps of more than 100,000 troops, AI will be key to processing more complex data, shortening planning cycles and improving situational awareness, Moreau said.

HexaForce is aimed at providing command and control from the army corps level down to the battalion, according to the executive. Thales defined a goal with end users to be able to plan 1,000 target missions a day, a tenfold increase.

The system has an open architecture built around NATO standards, allowing countries to plug in existing systems for tasks such as mission planning, or use the large language model of their choice, according to Moreau. In addition to the LLM component, HexaForce includes agentic AI for tasks such as targeting mission preparation.

It has a fully distributed architecture designed to rely on mesh capability, allowing the system to be spread over different data hubs within different command posts, in line with new operational concepts to not rely on central computing, according to Moreau.

By interfacing with legacy solutions, HexaForce can add “AI-powered capability” to systems already in use by the armed forces, according to Moreau. HexaForce is a command-and-control system, and users still need dedicated tactical systems to provide sensor data, he said.

The executive said the aim at CWIX was for end users to test HexaForce and its interoperability with existing and legacy systems. The system implements NATO standards related to the Data-Centric Security and Federation Mission Networking frameworks, he said.

For threats identified at the strategic command level, HexaForce can propose different courses of action, including firing options using air or land forces, according to Moreau. The operator can then choose a course of action, with the system sending the targeting mission to the tactical level.

“Of course it remains up to the operator to choose to push the button, and to choose the best option proposed by HexaForce,” Moreau said. “There is no automated action.”

In addition to connecting to systems that provide tactical awareness, Hexaforce could include commercial ship-tracking data or cyber threats to provide a more complete picture, Moreau said.

While developed with input from the French Army, the executive repeatedly stressed that the Thales system is designed as a NATO solution rather than a France-specific system. Asked how it compares with existing systems such as Systematic’s SitaWare or Airbus’s Multi-Domain Combat Cloud, Moreau instead focused on the interoperability of the Thales system.

Moreau said HexaForce is ready and already in the hands of the armed forces, with the first version taking nine months from design to making it available to the French Army.

France is developing its sovereign C2 system Arcadia, and Moreau said that while Hexaforce could be “a cornerstone” of the French system, the decision is not up to Thales.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——法国国防科技公司泰雷兹（Thales）负责多域作战的副总裁帕特里克·莫罗（Patrick Moreau）表示，该公司与一些北约国家就使用其人工智能驱动的指挥控制系统HexaForce进行的讨论“进展相当顺利”。

泰雷兹公司上周宣布推出HexaForce系统。此前，该公司于6月在波兰举行的北约“联盟战士互操作性演习”（CWIX）期间对该系统进行了测试。泰雷兹将该系统定位为多域指挥控制“叠加层”，可与现有系统和国家系统在战略到战术层面无缝对接，同时允许用户选择自己的人工智能模型，避免被特定厂商锁定。

北约正日益转向人工智能，以利用海量数据进行指挥控制，目前已在使用由美国帕兰提尔科技公司提供的指挥控制系统。与此同时，欧盟正寻求加快欧洲自身能力的研发和部署，但同时也担忧支撑这些能力的技术的主权控制权问题。

“我不想透露太多细节，但到目前为止，我们与一些北约国家的讨论已经取得了相当深入的进展，”莫罗在9月24日接受《防务新闻》采访时表示。

莫罗表示，随着欧洲和北约军队寻求将作战规模从旅级单位扩大到超过 10 万兵力的军团，人工智能将成为处理更复杂数据、缩短计划周期和提高态势感知能力的关键。

据高管透露，HexaForce旨在提供从军级到营级的指挥和控制能力。泰雷兹公司与最终用户共同设定了一个目标，即每天能够规划1000个目标任务，比之前提升十倍。

据莫罗介绍，该系统采用基于北约标准的开放式架构，允许各国接入现有系统执行任务（例如任务规划），或使用他们选择的大型语言模型。除了大型语言模型组件外，HexaForce 还包含用于目标定位、任务准备等任务的智能体人工智能。

据 Moreau 称，该系统采用完全分布式架构，旨在依靠网状网络功能，使系统能够分布在不同指挥所内的不同数据中心，这符合不依赖中央计算的新作战理念。

据莫罗介绍，HexaForce可以通过与现有系统对接，为军队已在使用的系统增添“人工智能功能”。他指出，HexaForce是一个指挥控制系统，用户仍然需要专用的战术系统来提供传感器数据。

该高管表示，CWIX 的目标是让最终用户测试 HexaForce 系统及其与现有和传统系统的互操作性。他还表示，该系统实现了与数据中心安全和联邦任务网络框架相关的北约标准。

据莫罗介绍，针对战略指挥层面识别出的威胁，HexaForce系统可以提出不同的行动方案，包括使用空中或地面部队进行打击的选项。操作员随后可以选择行动方案，系统会将目标定位任务下达至战术层面。

“当然，是否按下按钮以及选择HexaForce提供的最佳方案，最终仍由操作员决定，”莫罗说。“没有自动操作。”

莫罗表示，除了连接到提供战术感知能力的系统外，Hexaforce 还可以纳入商业船舶跟踪数据或网络威胁信息，以提供更全面的信息。

尽管该系统是在法国陆军的参与下开发的，但这位高管反复强调，泰雷兹公司的这套系统是作为北约解决方案设计的，而非法国专属系统。当被问及该系统与现有系统（例如Systematic公司的SitaWare或空客公司的多域作战云）相比如何时，莫罗反而着重强调了泰雷兹系统的互操作性。

莫罗表示，HexaForce 已经准备就绪，并已交付给武装部队，第一个版本从设计到交付给法国陆军用了九个月时间。

法国正在开发其自主的 C2 系统 Arcadia，Moreau 表示，虽然 Hexaforce 可能是法国系统的“基石”，但最终决定权不在泰雷兹手中。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。