NATO

NATO tested AI-assisted targeting and layered counter-drone systems in Latvia, aiming to cut decision latency by more than 50% mixed

• The Jerusalem Post reported on 2 November that "NATO FUSE, held in Latvia on October 29-30" and run by Allied Command Transformation, combined three initiatives: Digital Backbone eXperimentation (DiBaX), the Layered Counter-UAS Initiative (LCI-X) and Next Generation Targeting (NGT). It describes NGT as aiming "to create a federated framework that integrates national data through modular AI and data-management tools", with human operators keeping control over engagement decisions and a stated goal of "reducing information-to-decision latency by more than 50%."
• "More than 30 countries and over 100 companies" took part, according to Maj.-Gen. Arnoud Stallmann, NATO's assistant chief of staff for multi-domain capability. He said "It's a sprint", that "We need to adopt quicker and innovate quicker, because the enemy is doing that too", and "This is the beginning of a never-ending cycle." On the counter-drone side he said "We really need to find other solutions" than fighter jets or missile interceptors, pointing to the September drone incursions into Poland: "What we see nowadays is that the incursions into Poland last September were the start".
• NATO frames FUSE as experimentation, not a procurement programme, and neither report gives performance figures from the exercises — the more-than-50% latency reduction is a goal, not a measured result. The Jerusalem Post adds that no Israeli companies took part in FUSE though they had joined earlier NATO events.