In an era of rapidly evolving threats and disruptive technological advancements, NATO’s ability to maintain strategic superiority hinges on its capacity for continuous innovation. Allied Command Transformation, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, USA, serves as the Alliance’s engine for military adaptation and innovation, ensuring that NATO remains agile, interoperable, and technologically superior. Through a structured approach encompassing emerging and disruptive technologies, experimentation, and capability development, Allied Command Transformation leads efforts to integrate cutting-edge solutions into NATO’s strategic, operational, and tactical frameworks.
Innovation Ecosystem: The Transformation Continuum
At the heart of Allied Command Transformation’s innovation efforts is the Transformation Continuum, a structured framework that includes three interconnected elements:
- Innovation Continuum – Focused on ideation and exploration of new concepts, technologies, and operational methods to enhance military effectiveness.
- Experimentation Continuum – Provides a rigorous testing ground for validating emerging solutions in realistic environments before adoption.
- Interoperability Continuum – Ensures that innovations integrate seamlessly across NATO’s systems and multinational forces, reinforcing operational cohesion.
In 2025, the Transformation Continuum will provide NATO entities and partner nations with a series of key milestone events, including but not limited to:
Innovation: NATO Innovation Challenge, NATO Open Innovation Conference & Expo (NOICE), Innovation Continuum Event series (SPARK, IGNITE, GLOW, SHINE).
Experimentation: Digital Backbone Experimentation (DiBax) and Dynamic Messenger 2025 event series.
Interoperability: Think-Tank for Information Decision and Execution Sprint (TIDE Sprint), Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise (CWIX), Interoperability 360 (IO360), Think-Tank for Information Decision and Execution Hackathon (TIDE Hackathon),
Emerging and Disruptive Technologies (EDT) Strategy Implementation
NATO has identified nine critical emerging and disruptive technologies that will shape future warfare, ranging from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to biotechnology and autonomous systems. Allied Command Transformation plays a central role in implementing NATO’s “Foster and Protect” strategy, ensuring these technologies are leveraged to enhance military readiness and operational effectiveness. In 2024, the command’s contributions included:
- Developing Military Implications of EDTs: Providing assessments on how novel technologies impact NATO’s warfighting capabilities and force structures.
- Technology Trend Analysis: Offering critical inputs to the Science and Technology Organization’s (STO) reports on technological trends.
- Policy and Strategy Formulation: Contributing to NATO’s Revised AI Strategy, Quantum Technology Strategy, and Biotechnology and Human Enhancement Strategy.
- Rapid Adoption Initiatives: Accelerating the fielding of new capabilities through the NATO Rapid Adoption Action Plan, ensuring that military forces can integrate emerging technologies at an operational tempo that matches or exceeds adversaries.
Operationalizing Innovation Through Experimentation and Capability Development
Allied Command Transformation’s commitment to innovation is exemplified by its robust experimentation initiatives, which rigorously test and refine emerging technologies. In 2024, the command led multiple high-profile experimentation efforts, including:
- Sky Fortress Experiment: Evaluated the integration of acoustic sensor networks into NATO’s air command and control systems.
- Multi-Domain Space Deterrence Wargame: Explored deterrence strategies utilizing diplomatic, informational, military, and economic (DIME) tools.
- AI in Wargaming: Integrated Generative AI and large language models into NATO wargames (e.g., Red Dragon and Sentinel Vanguard) to enhance decision-making and scenario realism.
In 2025, a major innovation initiative is NATO’s Task Force X. This initiative, led by Allied Command Transformation and Allied Maritime Command, is NATO’s direct response to actions in the Baltic and will demonstrate the effectiveness of maritime uncrewed capabilities to the Alliance. Recent and current deployments in the Baltic Sea and experimentations with Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) involved assets from the Standing NATO Marine Groups and national navies to enhance NATO’s maritime security and surveillance capabilities focused on addressing acts of vandalism on Allied critical infrastructure.
Task Force X aims to enhance existing surveillance and close intelligence gaps, while also testing the interoperability of USVs within traditional maritime task groups, including live-fire exercises. This project is a key example of Allied Command Transformation supporting the operationalizing of advanced technology through experimentation and innovation.
Additionally, Allied Command Transformation actively supports capability development by embedding innovation into the NATO Defence Planning Process (NDPP). By integrating emerging and disruptive technologies-enabled capabilities into Minimum Capability Requirements (MCRs), the NATO ensures that technological advancements directly contribute to future force readiness.
Key Innovation Programmes and Milestone Events
A key strength of Allied Command Transformation’s approach lies in its ability to connect military, industry, and academic stakeholders through a network of innovation-centric programmes and events. In 2024, the command managed several high-impact initiatives that will also be held in 2025, including:
- Innovation Challenge: This 15th edition focused on soliciting ideas for how to counter glide bombs. The competition attracted over 40 proposals from ten nations, with winners advancing to NATO experimentation programmes.
- NATO Open Innovation Conference & Expo (NOICE): Provided a platform for hundreds of military and civilian innovation practitioners to share best practices and accelerate rapid adoption pathways.
- Digital Backbone Experimentation (DiBaX): Investigated how next-generation communication networks, including 5G, can enhance autonomous system performance.
- SHINE (Shared Platform for Innovative Solutions’ Evaluation): Featured over 300 participants and showcased 40 emerging and disruptive technology demonstrators, including advancements in quantum computing, AI-driven sensor fusion, and next-generation space technologies.
These initiatives not only drive technology adoption but also cultivate a culture of continuous learning and adaptation within the Alliance.
While major innovation events and experimentation initiatives are vital to technological advancement, NATO also recognizes that enduring innovation stems from cultivating the right mindset within its people and organizations. Project Mercury represents this critical cultural dimension—empowering teams across the Alliance to become drivers of innovation themselves. Project Mercury in NATO is about the democratization of Innovation: the idea that every organization has within it the ability to solve its own problems. It embraces the idea that innovation can be taught best through practice. Those that will outpace, outwit, outthink their adversaries will win – and as an Alliance there is a belief that the ideas that will win come from teams of diverse individuals. Project Mercury is a team of PhD coaches, industry experts, and military professionals that teach teams to embrace a diversity of thought using the Competing Values Framework and helps them to build skills utilizing a “See One, Do One, Teach One” method.
Strategic Focus for 2025
Drawing from 2024, Allied Command Transformation has identified key priorities to strengthen NATO’s innovation ecosystem. One critical area of focus is enhancing collaboration across NATO entities and national innovation programmes to improve knowledge-sharing. By fostering deeper integration with partner nations, NATO can maximize the potential of its collective expertise and technological advancements. Expanding national participation in innovation-focused events, such as hackathons, experimentation exercises, the NATO Innovation Network, and innovation challenges, will further accelerate the pace of technological adoption and military adaptation.
Another priority is the rapid adoption of high-impact emerging technologies through NATO’s Rapid Adoption Action Plan, ensuring that promising innovations transition swiftly from concept to operational capability. Additionally, Allied Command Transformation emphasizes the importance of increasing scientific and technological literacy within the military by offering more hands-on training and development opportunities related to emerging and disruptive technologies. Finally, embedding emerging technologies more deeply into NATO’s core processes, including defence planning and capability development, will ensure that innovation remains a central pillar of the Alliance’s strategic posture.
The Course Ahead
As NATO navigates an increasingly complex security landscape, the role of Allied Command Transformation in fostering innovation and integrating emerging technologies is more critical than ever. Through a coherent, structured, and collaborative approach, the command ensures that the Alliance remains at the forefront of military modernization. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, autonomous systems, and advanced data analytics, Allied Command Transformation enhances NATO’s warfighting capabilities but also strengthens its strategic deterrence posture and preserves the Alliance’s technological advantages.