Task Force X began in January 2025 in the Baltic with a focused question: could NATO and its Allies bring commercially available uncrewed systems into an operational environment quickly enough to meet a real, time-sensitive military need?
The first iteration in the Baltic showed that industry could deliver uncrewed systems for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance at speed, at scale and at substantially lower cost than many traditional platforms. Task Force X-Baltic has since moved into a second phase, with participating nations leading the procurement and deployment of systems in the Baltic Sea.
That progression has shaped a model that NATO Commands and Allies can apply elsewhere.
Proving that industry is able to deliver at speed and scale is only the first step of the Task Force X model. Next, we moved to direct deployment of uncrewed capabilities into real-world conditions, across the European area of responsibility.
– Bart Hollants
Allied Command Transformation Innovation Broker
Task Force X is a NATO rapid-adoption mechanism that accelerates the identification, integration, deployment and transition of mature technologies in response to defined operational requirements. It connects military users, industry and technical experts, then tests available solutions directly in the conditions where they may eventually be used.
The model is now expanding across regions and operational environments.
One Approach, Different Problems
Task Force X-North Sea is linked to Dutch maritime uncrewed-system trials. It is exploring how crewed and uncrewed systems could work together to protect critical undersea infrastructure in a region marked by defence infrastructure networks and high levels of shadow-fleet activity. The results will help shape future decisions on both the deployment of uncrewed systems and the countermeasures needed to address their potential misuse.
Task Force X-Arctic, by NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, will support enhanced Vigilance Activity Arctic Sentry. It will examine how sensors, platforms, and data can improve situational awareness across the North Atlantic, Arctic, and High North. Its more experimental design also provides room to assess technologies at an earlier stage of maturity, including solutions developed through NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic.
Task Force X-Central Mediterranean has taken the model into a multi-service, multi-domain setting. Led by Italy, with contributions from Croatia, Latvia, Slovenia and the United States, the activity is testing how military and dual-use technologies can strengthen NATO’s awareness and presence along the southern flank.
Crewed and uncrewed systems as well as supporting technologies operate together under human control across all domains. This gives participants a chance to see how systems perform when they must share information, operate alongside existing forces, and contribute to a common operational picture.
While the activities differ in scale, participants and technological maturity, they follow the same basic route: define the military problem, identify available solutions, test them in realistic conditions and decide what should move forward.
Rapid Adoption in Action
Task Force X reflects a wider Alliance effort to shorten the time between identifying a military need and fielding a useful capability.
At the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, Allies approved the Rapid Adoption Action Plan. The plan is intended to help NATO and the Allies acquire, integrate, and deploy priority technologies more quickly alongside conventional forces.
Task Force X offers a practical example of how the commitments behind rapid adoption can be put into practice.
An operational requirement creates the starting point. Industry is given a clearer demand signal. Military users test solutions in realistic settings, while technical teams examine integration, data sharing, and interoperability. Technologies that perform well can then move toward procurement, deployment, or further development.
Who Sets the Direction
Task Force X is a tool that NATO commands and Allies can employ. Its direction depends on the operational requirement and on who intends to take the results forward.
Task Force X is NATO’s mechanism for turning mature innovation into operational capability at pace. Each activity begins with a clear military need, brings the right leadership and authority behind it, and focuses on delivering usable operational effect while learning through employment.
– Simon Purton
Head of Allied Command Transformation’s Innovation Branch
Senior NATO leadership may set the overall direction, while Allied Command Operations defines the military need and the desired operational effect. Allied Command Transformation then provides the framework, linking that requirement to experimentation, interoperability, lessons learned and longer-term capability development.
Meanwhile, NATO Headquarters provides policy, governance, political and funding context. Ultimately, participating Allies determine whether they will commit resources, procure systems or bring a tested capability into national service.
The balance varies though. A nation-led Task Force X may develop differently from one initiated by a NATO command. The shared framework gives participants a common way to organize the work and maintain a route from experimentation to adoption.
Proving Capability in Real-World Conditions
A technology can perform well in a controlled demonstration and still struggle at sea, in challenging environmental conditions, across several domains or on a contested network.
Task Force X directly delivers new technology to the operational reality. Integration problems, interoperability gaps and practical limitations surface earlier. Industry receives direct feedback from military users, and NATO and the Allies gain a clearer picture of what a system can deliver.
Each activity ends with a decision. Some technologies will require more development. Others will not meet the requirement. The strongest candidates should have a route toward procurement, deployment or further integration, helping Allies turn the 5% of GDP defence commitment made at the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague into the capabilities, procurements and industrial capacity emphasized at the 2026 Summit in Ankara.
Task Force X Baltic has already begun that transition. The North Sea, Arctic and Central Mediterranean efforts will produce their own results.
As Task Force X expands, its value will depend on what happens after the testing ends: whether responsibilities are clear, whether participating nations commit to the solution and whether successful technologies reach the forces that need them.