In today’s security environment, technological advantage and industrial agility are as critical to deterrence as military strength itself. No single company, government, or nation can keep pace with the accelerating tempo of innovation. For the defence and technology sectors, this reality has reshaped what it means to contribute to collective security, turning collaboration with NATO from a policy preference into a strategic necessity.
At the centre of this cooperation stands the NATO Industrial Advisory Group (NIAG), the Alliance’s formal consultative group for industry engagement. Representing more than 5,000 companies across Allied nations, NIAG brings together senior executives, engineers, acquisition specialists and innovators. They provide the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) with collective industry insight on capability development, research priorities, and emerging technologies. It serves as a forum for the open exchange of views on industry within NATO, ensuring that the private sector’s technical expertise and market perspectives inform the Alliance’s strategic decisions. NIAG is responsible for providing advice to the CNAD, assisting the Main Armaments Groups (MAGs) and their subordinate bodies, and other NATO bodies as appropriate. Coordination of the NIAG work is under the responsibility of the Defence Industry, Innovation and Armaments (D2IA) Division at NATO Headquarters.
Reflecting on NIAG’s importance, Ron Nulkes, Chair of the NIAG, noted that “The NIAG plays a pivotal role for NATO, its Allies and Partners, and industry, benefitting all parties: NATO learns early on what opportunities industry offers, and companies learn early on what NATO needs.”
A Platform for Strategic Dialogue
NIAG’s work is not transactional. It does not promote individual companies or commercial interests and is not a business association either; instead, it fosters shared understanding between NATO and the industries that enable its capabilities. NIAG is part of NATO, with high level industrialists as members. Through studies, workshops, papers, and direct consultation with NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, the NATO Industrial Advisory Group helps identify technological opportunities and industrial constraints early in the capability development process.
This approach strengthens NATO’s ability to anticipate challenges and shape demand signals in a way that industry can realistically meet. For companies, the value lies in early visibility of NATO’s strategic direction, from data-driven operations to resilience and emerging technologies, which helps guide long-term research and investment.
Confronting Shared Challenges
Working with NATO brings immense opportunity, but also complexity. The defence sector operates under strict regulatory frameworks, intricate procurement cycles, and fluctuating budgets. For small and medium-sized enterprises, navigating these systems can be daunting. Meanwhile, commercial innovation continues to outpace traditional defence acquisition timelines, risking a gap between what is technologically possible and what is formally adopted.
As Kristyna Helm, Vice President of the Association of the Czech Defence Industry and Deputy Head of the Czech Delegation to NIAG, observed, “Redefining engagement with industry isn’t just modernization – it’s smart defence. By reducing barriers to entry, NATO stays mission-ready and utilizes the full potential of industry expertise.”
NIAG serves as the mechanism for tackling these issues collectively. By identifying where processes or policies inhibit innovation, it helps NATO refine its engagement mechanisms, such as the evolving Framework for NATO-Industry Engagement (FNIE) and the proposed Industry Front Door initiative that ACT is helping to develop. These reforms aim to simplify how companies engage, particularly those outside the traditional defence sector.
Echoing this view, Philippe Glaesener of SES, Head of the Luxembourg Delegation to NIAG and Chair of Spacenet, explained that “Through the NATO Industry Advisory Group, NATO is overcoming challenges in meeting capability requirements by integrating and training its teams to work with commercial systems from an earlier stage in the process. NATO could profit even more efficiently from industry by addressing current bureaucratic procurement barriers that are time consuming. All this leading to a far better involvement of non-core-defence industries, subject matter experts and start-ups in advanced and innovative NATO systems.”
Liaison with Allied Command Transformation
Among NATO’s two strategic commands, ACT plays a distinctive role for industry. It is the command responsible for future capability development, concept innovation, and experimentation which is the bridge between today’s needs and tomorrow’s technologies. Collaboration between NIAG and ACT therefore serves as the laboratory for NATO’s long-term innovation.
Through studies commissioned by ACT to the CNAD, innovation workshops, and exchanges on topics such as artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and resilient supply chains, NIAG contributes insights that help shaping ACT’s transformational agenda. This cooperation ensures that the Alliance’s capability planning remains grounded in technological reality while giving industry a voice in defining feasible, scalable, and interoperable solutions.
Building a Future-Ready Industrial Ecosystem
Looking ahead, the relationship between industry and NATO is poised to deepen. Global instability, rapid digitalization, and the demand for dual-use innovation will require more agile and collaborative models of defence cooperation. NIAG’s role representing the collective expertise of Allied industry will be essential to ensuring that NATO’s technological ambitions are matched by industrial readiness and innovation capacity.
This sentiment is shared by Philippe Chemoul of Airbus, Deputy Head of the French Delegation to NIAG and Chair of the NIAG-ACT Community of Interest, who explained that “The NIAG-ACT Community of Interest aims to share with ACT, in an agile way, the industry’s experience in innovation, new concepts, and experimentation. Indeed, we consider that industry must be an instrument of power, just like the armed forces, and must present the same level of preparation and anticipation as the armed forces in order to offer the best responsiveness to meet military operational needs. The fruitful dialogue between ACT and NIAG within the Community of Interest contributes significantly to this.”
The strength of the transatlantic defence industrial base will depend on sustained dialogue, mutual trust, and shared responsibility. The NIAG ACT partnership embodies exactly that: a community where ideas, data, and innovation flow in both directions ensuring that NATO’s future capabilities are not only visionary but also achievable, and that industry remains an active partner in shaping the innovations that define transatlantic security.