“Nothing After Two O’clock” or “No Action, Talk Only” are well-worn jabs at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that once resonated with a certain truth. They conjured images of bureaucratic inertia and a disconnect between lofty pronouncements and concrete action. This has changed. NATO’s Allied Command Operations is shifting its culture to rapidly adopt new technologies and capabilities at record breaking speed. A prime example is the recent acquisition of Palantir’s Maven Smart System in under six months—a process that previously took up to two decades. A surging movement of digital insurgents within NATO is redefining what is achievable. The time for talk has ended; it is now an era of relentless execution and swift delivery of crucial capabilities to the warfighter.
A landscape rewritten
While the Alliance’s core mission of collective defence enshrined in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty remains sacrosanct, the strategic environment has undergone a seismic shift, demanding a fundamental reassessment of NATO’s capabilities and operational posture. This is not your father’s NATO. The comfortable certainties of the Cold War era, with its clearly defined adversary and predictable battlefields, have given way to a complex and fluid landscape characterised by resurgent great power competition, the weaponisation of information, the blurring lines between peace and war, and the rapid advance of technology transforming how wars are fought and won.
As underscored by the 2022 Strategic Concept and the Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area strategy, NATO faces a multitude of evolving threats, from state-sponsored aggression and terrorism to cyberattacks, hybrid warfare, and the disruptive potential of emerging technologies. These all converge to challenge the international rules-based order that underpins the security of NATO’s nearly one billion citizens. This necessitates a renewed focus on deterrence and defence across all domains, including the increasingly critical digital sphere.
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and other advanced technologies is not merely a technological evolution; it represents a revolution in military affairs, fundamentally altering the character of contemporary warfare. The analytic horsepower backing these technologies creates an unmatched acceleration within a decision cycle. This reality has spurred a top-down and bottom-up movement for change within Allied Command Operations, the Alliance’s military instrument of power. Led by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Allied Command Operations is driving a transformation aligned with NATO’s evolving strategy and plans, ushering in a renaissance in Allied operations.
From within the ranks
At the forefront of this effort is a nascent but increasingly influential bottom-up group of “digital insurgents,” a cross-generational, multinational cohort of tech-savvy individuals. These insurgents are working to drive NATO’s transition towards rapid and effective technology adoption, focused on warfighting and warfighters. This is not a nostalgic yearning for a romanticized past or empty slogans; it’s about recognising the imperative for NATO to be more agile and lethal, leveraging the most powerful technologies available to maintain its strategic edge. The world’s most powerful Alliance in history needs the most powerful tools to plan, operate, and fight.
We, the authors, are active participants in this digital insurgency – we are Task Force Maven. On March 25, 2025, the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) and Palantir Technologies Inc. (Palantir) finalised the acquisition of the Maven Smart System for employment within the Alliance. Our task now is implementation and fostering an environment of speed, agility, and adaptability. Yet, this is not a story about a specific technology but one about NATO’s people, culture, and the fight to keep pace with an accelerating future.
Task Force Maven was formally established only recently, but its members had been working — often voluntarily — for the past year on the challenges that led to the acquisition of this AI-enabled digital warfighting system. We were a small group of people with different skills and mindsets, but with the same conclusion: the time for admiring the problem was over. When we entered rooms filled with senior military leaders from across NATO, we stood out — younger, more diverse, and less conventional than most teams that were trusted with high-stakes issues. That difference wasn’t just demographic; it shaped how we worked—more flat, less hierarchical, and quicker to adapt.
Reform by doing
What we are doing is not a new idea for NATO or the broader defence community. The rationale—embracing the power of innovative technologies by adapting proven capabilities rather than expending tremendous resources to build them over decades—has long been recognised. Technology is changing too fast for dated acquisition cycles that rarely result in transitioned capabilities to the warfighter.
Over the years, multiple top-down initiatives have sought to address this gap. In 2018, NATO introduced a new governance model to streamline decision-making and improve efficiency in capability delivery. The Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) was created to accelerate the delivery of information and communication systems. In 2021, NATO launched the $1.1 billion NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) and established the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) to accelerate the development and adoption of emerging and disruptive dual-use technologies. These initiatives laid important groundwork, which efforts like the Maven Smart System are now building upon – with stakeholders such as the Office of the Chief Information Officer actively championing its delivery alongside SHAPE and the NATO Communications Information Agency. The difference today is not in vision or intent — it is in execution. Rather than talking about digital transformation, we are bringing it home as a team of teams.
This breakthrough — the acquisition of Maven Smart System— marks a break from NATO’s traditional, lengthy approach to capability development. The significant achievement is not the technology itself, but demonstrating NATO’s ability to move from requirement to capability in months instead of decades. The experience of the NATO Air Command and Control System (ACCS) highlights how lengthy, complex cycles can delay critical capabilities to the point of paralysis.
We are not outsiders criticizing the system from a distance- we are part of it, and we have seen its limits firsthand. The low conversion rate of requirement to capability shows that NATO’s existing processes are not fully suited to today’s environment. They remain too slow, too fragmented, and too risk-averse to meet today’s operational demands. Our goal was not to bypass NATO’s governance or acquisition frameworks, but to deliver with speed, discipline, and focus on the pace required. The acquisition of Maven Smart System proved that the system can deliver, but only through sustained effort and operational urgency. Every step — from requirement definition to approval and funding — followed NATO’s established procedures. What changed was the intensity of execution. We minimized bureaucratic drift, maintained strict accountability, and focused relentlessly on operational outcomes. We worked very closely with NATO Communications and Information Agency to secure Alliance-wide approval.
Delivering operational advantage at scale will require more than execution — it will require systematic adaptation to the speed and complexity of modern warfare. In this environment, victories are not rhetorical; they are measured by capabilities in the hands of warfighters who provide the ability to fight and win.
A launchpad, not a landing zone
Maven Smart System is not the culmination of our efforts; it is merely the starting point. Task Force Maven is now building an operational innovation ecosystem by integrating additional tools and technologies, not through isolated procurement, but by systematically incorporating commercial off-the-shelf solutions from across the Alliance. With access to the innovation ecosystems of 32 nations — including world-leading industries, research institutions, and start-ups — we are uniquely positioned to deliver cutting-edge capabilities rapidly and responsibly. While the backbone of the system is in place, its near-term evolution presents an opportunity to grow a truly Transatlantic innovation ecosystem within NATO. With the help of multiple stakeholders, an open architecture system will provide a resilient infrastructure layer and software deployment pathway to accelerate the adoption of cutting-edge technologies as a platform others can build upon. This approach aligns also with the objectives outlined in NATO’s Rapid Adoption Action Plan, which seeks to accelerate the fielding of new capabilities to maintain the Alliance’s technological edge against strategic competitors and potential adversaries.
While important efforts are underway, further steps are needed to enhance NATO’s agility, lethality, and operational effectiveness. The following recommendations, drawn from lessons we are learning through this work, can be implemented immediately to accelerate progress.
Lesson 1: Achieve Economies of Scale with an Alliance “Git Repository”
We can immediately magnify the Maven Smart System success by fostering a culture of shared development, something akin to GitHub, Azure Repos, or AWS CodeCommit for the Alliance. Imagine the power unlocked when coders and engineers from across our nations can contribute to and draw from a crowdsourced software code repository. Think of the economies of scale we could achieve, eliminating redundant efforts and channeling resources towards truly innovative capabilities.
This is not just about saving money; it is about raising the bar and driving a new level of excellence across our warfighting organisations. When a brilliant algorithm is developed in Estonia for cyber defence, why shouldn’t every other NATO nation be able to adapt and implement it? When the United Kingdom pioneers a more efficient data processing system for intelligence analysis, shouldn’t that knowledge be readily available to our allies in the Black Sea Region? By creating a shared collaborative platform, we cultivate a virtuous cycle of improvement. Each contribution becomes a building block, allowing others to iterate, refine, and build even more sophisticated systems. This constant cross-pollination of ideas and code will ensure that our collective technological advantage does not just keep pace, but actively outstrips strategic competitors and potential adversaries.
Consider the implications, from secure communications and battlefield management systems to AI-driven threat analysis and logistical support. A shared platform would accelerate development and enhance standardisation and interoperability from the ground up. This is not a pipe dream; the open-source community has already demonstrated the transformative power of collaborative coding. It is time for NATO to embrace this model, to build a digital commons where our best minds can work together, learn from each other, and collectively forge a more secure and technologically advanced future for the Alliance.
An immediate focus could be leveraging some of the first mover “wins” as the Alliance moves toward embracing (and not fearing) the dawn of agentic warfare. The era of agents is not on the horizon — it has already arrived. Agents must not simply be tested and observed but integrated into core planning, simulations, analysis, and operations. This is not tomorrow’s problem — it is today’s battlefield.
Seizing these advantages requires more than recognition. It demands immediate action. Outdated procurement cycles must be augmented by rapid prototyping and the accelerated testing of agents and other critical technologies. Traditional methods are not sufficient to create timely change. NATO’s generals and admirals must be empowered with direct funding to drive prototype warfare—not in the next fiscal year, not in the next planning cycle, but now. We must revolutionise the way NATO organises, operates, and fights in the battlespace of the 21st century.
Lesson 2: Rapid Prototyping Fund
Our colleagues in the U.S. European Command pointed out the lack of resources for combatant commands to address shortfalls in command and control systems. The same challenge exists in NATO. The Alliance needs to increase its risk threshold and provide commanders with funds to take chances on commercially available technologies outside of the normal capability development program. Early and aggressive testing, integration, and prototyping of technology and warfighting concepts are essential to finding competitive advantages in modern conflict. The war in Ukraine has demonstrated this in spades, but NATO must not wait until the crucible of combat for innovation discovery. Prototyping can create the conditions for increased value creation.
Prototyping, rooted in principles of rapid iteration and experimentation, offers a dynamic alternative to traditional, linear development models. Increased prototyping can unleash the Alliance’s key superpower: a robust network of talent across 32 nations.
NATO warfighting commands (e.g., joint force headquarters, land forces command, air command, and maritime command) need to proliferate the use of digital gaming and simulation technologies to test concepts and plans more regularly. Organisations should not wait for episodic exercises to do this once or twice a year. They need digital tools to do this more regularly and to analyse tests with a higher degree of rigor. Generals can take the opportunity to slug it out and fight using advanced wargames. There is enormous potential in gaming and simulations through the unfettered collection of learning data to inform prototyping and concept development. This data can feed into our new AI-enabled warfighting system to affect desired military outcomes for all our commands and increase the connectivity between the military and the private sector.
NATO’s digital transformation requires a strong partnership with the private sector. Many groundbreaking, dual-use technologies crucial for fulfilling NATO’s evolving mission are being pioneered and refined within the commercial realm. Often operating with agility and speed, these innovative companies cannot afford to navigate protracted, multi-year procurement cycles traditionally associated with defence acquisitions. To effectively harness their potential, NATO must embrace a paradigm of early and iterative investments, engaging with a diverse range of companies, from established giants to nimble startups. This strategy should also include optimising the way we select and onboard technologies. The Ukraine and Gaza conflicts have demonstrated that rapidly selecting and employing tech at the right time and place can generate campaign-altering outcomes.
Empowering the Supreme Allied Commander Europe and other warfighting commanders with dedicated funding mechanisms would enable them to make smaller, more frequent investments. This approach would foster a competitive environment, stimulate greater innovation, and ultimately deliver a continuous stream of enhanced capabilities to the Alliance.
Conclusion
This digital insurgency began within Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, but it is no longer limited to one organisation. Maven Smart System was acquired for all of Allied Command Operations, and these commands across the Alliance are now leading its implementation, some even forming their own task forces. This is not about compliance, but a clear commitment to transform the Alliance to become more data-centric.
This commitment now must be sustained. The core challenge is no longer proving that NATO can move quickly – it is ensuring that this pace is no longer the exception. This requires clear communication from within: NATO’s internal advocates who can explain why speed matters, why rapid technological adoption is critical to operational success, and what it takes to replicate success. Transformation is challenging, but the task before us is essential. We are not simply adopting new technologies; we are fundamentally changing how NATO operates to remain effective in the modern security environment. If this shift continues, this will not be a one-time achievement, it will be the start of a more agile and lethal NATO.
Arnel P. David, Dilan E. Koç, and Amanda Gustave
Arnel P. David, Dilen E. Koç, and Amanda Gustaveserve on the core team of Task Force Maven in NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE).
The opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied in this article are the authors’ and do not reflect the views of any organisation or any entity of any government or NATO.