NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is advancing “Next Generation Targeting” (NGT) as one of its 2026 Beacon Projects selected through its Fall 2025 Adoption Board, reflecting the Alliance’s focus on capabilities that can move from concept to practical use more quickly. In a security environment shaped by mass, speed and complexity, the project is designed to help NATO reduce one of its most pressing vulnerabilities: the time it takes to turn information into coordinated, informed action.
“In a battlefield defined by complexity and speed, NGT aims to connect the fight, accelerating decision without replacing judgement.” – Nora Malchin, Next Generation Targeting Project Lead
Reducing delay in a faster battlespace
Modern conflict generates huge amounts of information at high speed. Success depends on how quickly that information can be sorted, understood and used. Today’s operational environment can generate overwhelming volumes of data through missiles, drones, sensors and electronic warfare, while traditional processes often remain manual, siloed and slower to adapt. Next Generation Targeting (NGT) is intended to help NATO address that gap by reducing information-to-decision latency across the targeting cycle. Its strategic goal is to achieve a reduction of more than 50 percent in time to decision, allowing Allied forces to operate with greater speed and coherence in a contested environment.
Integrating what already exists
Rather than replacing NATO’s command-and-control architecture, NGT is designed to connect and strengthen the systems already in use across the Alliance. Allied Command Transformation’s approach centres on integrating national capabilities through modular artificial intelligence, federated data flows and improved doctrinal foundations. The aim is to support a more unified operating picture across domains and echelons, helping the right information reach the right decision-maker at the right time. That in turn can improve interoperability, strengthen coordination and support faster, better-informed action across multinational forces.
In simple terms, NGT aims to do for a complex battlespace what modern air traffic control does for crowded skies: bring together large volumes of information, highlight what matters most, and help human decision-makers act in time.
Preserving human judgment
At the heart of the project is a simple principle: technology must support commanders, not replace them. Next Generation Targeting is intended to reduce staff burden, filter battlefield noise and help decision-makers focus on the most operationally and strategically relevant choices. The project also reflects NATO’s emphasis on the responsible use of AI, including explainability, traceability, reliability and meaningful human control. As the Alliance explores how AI can support future operations, maintaining that balance between speed and judgment remains essential.
Linking innovation, experimentation and adoption
Allied Command Transformation is pursuing NGT as a practical adoption effort, not a stand-alone technology exercise. The project will leverage the full range of NATO innovation activity and ACT’s annual experiments and exercises to align work, reduce duplication, and save both time and cost. That approach helps ensure the project develops through real operational testing and interoperability challenges rather than in isolation. It also reflects the purpose of the Beacon Project model more broadly: accelerating the path from promising ideas to capabilities that can be adopted at speed and scale.
Demonstrating progress this year
The work will continue through a series of major events in 2026. Next Generation Targeting is set to advance through the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise (CWIX) in June, Bold Quest in September and the Digital Backbone Experimentation, or DiBaX, in October. These milestones will help test how the project can strengthen data-sharing, improve interoperability and support faster decision-making in NATO’s multi-domain environment. During DiBaX, NGT and another Beacon Project, LCI-X, are expected to demonstrate defensive and offensive capability across tactical-to-strategic workflows in a blended simulated and live event, showing how these efforts can reinforce one another in practice.
Next Generation Targeting is about modernizing a process while also helping NATO become faster, more integrated and better prepared for the demands of future conflict. By reducing delay, improving interoperability and preserving human judgment, Next Generation Targeting is helping move the Alliance toward a more responsive decision environment fit for the multi-domain age.