STAVANGER, Norway – NATO’s digital transformation is accelerating across the Alliance. This week, NATO’s Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) hosted a Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE)-sponsored training event to enable selected JWC staff to use the Maven Smart System NATO (NATO MSS). The JWC is moving to integrate this cutting-edge software into the NATO exercises it directs.
Developed, delivered and implemented by Palantir Technologies Inc., the software is NATO’s first AI-enabled warfighting command and control system. It modernizes NATO’s warfighting capabilities by providing a common data-enabled warfighting functionality using a wide range of artificial intelligence applications.
Deployed across Allied Command Operations (ACO), MSS NATO will also be implemented at the JWC to bolster the efficiency and effectiveness of JWC-directed exercises, which are NATO’s largest and the most complex at the joint operational and strategic levels.
In his remarks welcoming the Maven instructors, Major General Ruprecht von Butler, Commander JWC, highlighted the JWC’s ongoing digital transformation and hyper-automation projects, and the operational necessity to integrate MSS NATO into JWC-directed exercises.
Our warfighters demand faster, more agile and more realistic training and simulation environments marked by technological innovation that incorporates advanced warfighting tools such as the Maven Smart System.
Major General Ruprecht von Butler
Commander JWC
MSS NATO’s use during Exercise STEADFAST DUEL 2025 is a crucial step for the software to achieve full operational capability.
The Director of SHAPE’s Task Force Maven, Colonel David, noted that although MSS NATO was first incorporated during Exercise STEADFAST DETERRENCE 2025 in May, Exercise STEADFAST DUEL 2025 will be ACO’s first real test of the new technology. He said: “MSS NATO will bolster the consolidation of cross-domain data sources, elevate decision-making capabilities and drive digital transformation. We will be better and faster, with ‘fight tonight’ capability for our warfighters.”
Scheduled by SHAPE, coordinated by Joint Force Command Brunssum and directed by the JWC, STEADFAST DUEL 2025 is one of NATO’s largest exercises this year, designed to enhance NATO’s multi-domain deterrence and defence.
- It is the first NATO exercise to simultaneously train NATO’s three joint force commands: Brunssum, Naples and Norfolk
- It will exercise elements of NATO’s defence plans under the framework of NATO’s Concept for Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area
- It will make NATO better at adapting to stronger and more orchestrated multi-domain warfare at the operational and higher tactical levels
“This training is just the beginning.”
The MSS NATO training, joined by more than 100 participants, at the JWC was delivered in two versions: one designed for general participants and one for developers.
The training also supported Exercise STEADFAST DUEL 2025 vignette development in a joint effort between the JWC and JFC Brunssum, facilitated by the Palantir developers and Task Force Maven from SHAPE.
Navy Captain Mark, the Director of JFC Brunssum Task Force Maven, is leading NATO’s implementation of MSS at the operational level.
“Maven will allow us to first do things better, and then do better things,” he explained. “We are excited to be at the forefront of bringing the latest technology to command and control of NATO’s military deterrence and defence operations.”
In addition to the Palantir engineers, the developers of MSS NATO include a growing number of experts across NATO such as data engineers, programmers and analysts from the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) and Allied Command Transformation (ACT).
Lieutenant Colonel Jered, a member of the JWC’s MSS NATO Integrated Project Team, underlined: “This training is just the beginning. It is laying the foundation for the growing pace of innovation across the Alliance with the use of Maven. The JWC will use Maven capabilities as a part of our digital transformation. We are working on digitizing the exercise process and leveraging AI to build exercises.”
Asked about the MSS NATO’s impact on NATO’s warfighters, Captain Jacob, the SHAPE MSS instructor, said: “It was refreshing to see the desire to learn from all the NATO entities that attend the training. This training will be a force multiplier for NATO at large.”
