For NATO, innovation is only valuable if it equips warfighters with a military advantage. Allied Command Transformation helps make that happen through its Science and Technology Programme of Work, moving promising concepts quickly from experimentation into real operational pathways.
One of the mechanisms that accelerates that journey is the Innovation Continuum. It creates a repeatable cycle of scoping, experimentation, and demonstration that helps NATO test emerging and disruptive technologies with operational users, then transition what works to the commands and agencies that can adopt and sustain it.
The Innovation Continuum is NATO’s fast lane for turning innovation into operational capability, strengthening deterrence and readiness by rapidly translating emerging and disruptive technologies into real military advantage.
– Krzysztof Skurzak, Section Head of Science & Technology and lead of the Innovation Continuum at NATO Allied Command Transformation
As the Innovation Continuum prepares to begin its annual cycle later this month, four recent examples show what a focus on innovation can produce in practical terms: MAINSAIL, the Joint ISR Asset Planner, MDO AI, and Türkiye’s ALFA 2026 national innovation call, inspired by NATO ACT’s Innovation Continuum model.
MAINSAIL: Protecting critical underwater infrastructure
MAINSAIL (Multi Domain Awareness and Insight with AI Layering) is NATO’s maritime situational awareness capability focused on protecting critical underwater infrastructure such as subsea communication cables and energy pipelines. Developed by NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation under Allied Command Transformation’s Programme of Work and in conjunction with Allied Maritime Command, it fuses inputs from sensors and other data sources to help operators spot patterns and anomalies tied to seabed security.
Over the past four months, the most significant change has been the integration and alignment of data. MAINSAIL has successfully integrated maritime-relevant information from the SINBAD (Smart Indication and Warning, Broad Area Detection) project, enabling more effective information sharing to enhance maritime situational awareness. This milestone supports NATO’s broader data strategy by leveraging information from different systems.
– LCDR Stefano Aiello, NATO Allied Command Transformation’s MAINSAIL Project Lead
Notably, this integration moved quickly. Since December 2024, Allied Command Operations and Allied Maritime Command have operated MAINSAIL continuously, 24/7, while the system continues to evolve toward full operational capability.
MAINSAIL has also consistently proven its value in real operational contexts. It supported major activity in 2025, including REPMUS and Dynamic Messenger, and it was demonstrated at the capstone “SHINE” event of the NATO Innovation Continuum at the end of 2025. In parallel, NATO is progressing the transition of ownership from Allied Command Transformation to Allied Command Operations and Allied Maritime Command, which is a key step toward wider operational adoption and long-term sustainment.
Joint ISR Asset Planner: Smarter collection management
The Joint ISR Asset Planner helps commanders and staffs plan how to use NATO intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets by reducing manual matching of requirements to platforms and sensors. It is being tailored for operational use in close coordination with operational stakeholders, focusing on practical workflows and integration.
Since last autumn, the team has adjusted the application to accommodate requirements from Allied Air Command. A demonstration of the updated version produced very positive feedback, and the project is now operating in a tight user feedback loop with frequent incremental releases.
A key next step is system-to-system integration. The team is defining the interface between INTEL FS SP2 (the Intelligence Functional Services Spiral 2 and the NATO intelligence community’s flagship capability) and the Joint ISR Asset Planner, with implementation and testing planned over the next few weeks. In parallel, lessons identified during SHINE highlighted additional work needed on the AI planning component that would automate deliberative and dynamic ISR asset planning. Importantly, those findings are already being fed straight into rapid updates, so the capability can be refined quickly and made more useful for real world planners.
MDO AI: Decision support for Multi Domain Operations
Last year, the MDO (Multi-Domain Operations) AI prototype demonstrated at the Innovation Continuum SHINE event showed how advanced algorithms can retrieve and process doctrinal and operational information to produce validated, actionable answers for staff decision support. Building on that foundation, the focus is now shifting from a single prototype toward the broader ecosystem required to make AI enabled decision support operational and scalable.
The practical lesson is that integration alone is not enough. Operational staffs need information that is discoverable, accessible on demand, and trustworthy when questions are ad hoc and mission driven. That requires stronger data quality, better search and retrieval, and tighter collaboration between subject matter experts and technical teams, so AI can find the right material, explain what it used, and support human judgement with transparency.
Security remains central as these capabilities mature. As AI systems replicate selected data to improve findability and speed, the same access controls and retention policies must follow that data wherever it resides. This is driving a stronger emphasis on Data Centric Security and Zero Trust principles built in from the start, with access control models evolving toward more granular approaches that reflect role, attributes, relationships, and topic sensitivity.
This year’s work packages reflect that shift: strengthening the foundations that enable trusted AI at scale, not as isolated tools, but as integrated, secure components of NATO’s broader digital transformation.
Türkiye: A national innovation call inspired by the Innovation Continuum
One of the clearest signs the Innovation Continuum is working is that Allies are inspired by the model, not just participating in it. After hosting NATO ACT Innovation Continuum milestones in 2025, Türkiye launched a national effort that mirrors the Continuum’s core logic: scenario-led problem framing, industry teaming for interoperability, and field demonstration under realistic conditions.
Türkiye’s initiative is ALFA 2026 (Artificial Intelligence, Quantum and Autonomous Systems Exercise), led by the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Secretariat of Defence Industries (SSB). SSB described the 2025 hosted Continuum events as the catalyst that helped create a national framework where companies can demonstrate capabilities together in integrated consortia rather than in isolation.
Through Türkiye’s ALFA 2026, Companies respond to a Request for Information with technical and performance details, plus how their systems can integrate with others. Feasible solutions will then be selected and moved into demonstration planning.
This is not happening in a national silo. Three consortia have already applied to NATO ACT’s Innovation Continuum 2026 cycle with the same concepts, and Türkiye plans to synchronize its national demonstrations with the broader NATO schedule, with the intent to integrate outputs such as the common operational picture into NATO infrastructure. Early momentum is strong: SSB reports more than 40 companies have already submitted intent to participate.
Through ALFA 2026, Türkiye aims to establish a robust experimentation environment that accelerates the application of Emerging and Disruptive Technologies (EDTs) to operational battlefield requirements. Türkiye views the Innovation Continuum as a key opportunity to test and advance interoperability with NATO Allies’ industries and operational assets.
– Professor Haluk Görgün, Secretary of Defence Industries (SSB)
Driving innovation forward
These stories share the same pattern: start with real operational needs, test in realistic conditions, and move quickly toward adoption. That is the practical value of the Innovation Continuum, and it is why ACT uses it to help turn experimentation into deliverable capability.
Later this month, SPARK will mark the first of four Innovation Continuum milestones for the year. Building on momentum from recent cycles that included dozens of experimentation and demonstration activities and hundreds of participants, SPARK will again focus the community on priority challenges that matter to planners and operators: Arctic ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance), AI in Audacious Training, the Layered Counter UAS Initiative, Next Generation Targeting, Smart Logistics and Sustainment, Electronic Warfare, AI Next Gen C4SR, Cognitive Warfare, and Cyber Resilience. Together, these topics will shape the scenarios, frame candidate solutions, and set the conditions for a strong SHINE capstone event in the series later this year.