Defence Technologies, a subsidiary of UK-listed Defence Holdings PLC, has secured a prominent role in NATO’s digital transformation efforts, showcasing its sovereign-AI capabilities at the NATO Task Force Maven Industry Day on 21 November 2025. The invitation to present at SHAPE Headquarters places the company among a select group of industry leaders demonstrating operationally ready AI solutions to senior NATO officials, Allied Command Transformation (ACT), Allied Command Operations (ACO), and national defence representatives.
The Task Force Maven Industry Day is a critical milestone in NATO’s AI modernisation strategy, focusing on integrating AI/ML, data fusion, and agile digital capabilities into the Maven Smart System (MSS). Defence Technologies will present Project Ixian, an AI/ML-driven content-assessment and decision-support platform designed to enhance the analytical capabilities of systems like MSS. Developed in partnership with Google Cloud’s EMEA Public Sector team and led by Defence Technologies’ engineering team in Belfast, Ixian applies sovereign-AI pipelines to detect, assess, and interpret open-source content, enabling faster, more informed decisions in information operations. All components of Ixian are developed within the UK and comply with NATO’s Principles of Responsible Use (PRUs) for AI in Defence.
The invitation to present at the Industry Day underscores the immediate applicability of Defence Technologies’ solutions to allied missions. This follows the company’s earlier demonstration of Ixian at DSEI 2025, where it was previewed to NATO programme executives and allied information-operations leads. The participation at SHAPE builds on this engagement, strengthening Defence Technologies’ pipeline of opportunities across allied programmes focused on information integrity, operational resilience, and sovereign-AI integration.
In addition to its NATO engagement, Defence Technologies has been invited to participate in the Digital Sovereignty Summit in Munich on 13 November 2025. Organised by Google’s EMEA team, the summit brings together European and allied government, defence, and industry leaders to discuss sovereign AI, secure cloud infrastructure, and digital autonomy. This consistent pattern of collaboration reinforces Defence Holdings’ position at the intersection of sovereign software and hyperscale technology, underpinning its broader role in allied AI and cloud-sovereignty initiatives.
Andy McCartney, Chief Technology Officer of Defence Technologies, emphasised the strategic significance of these engagements: “Defence Technologies is now operating at the heart of allied digital transformation. To be invited to contribute at this level, from NATO’s AI modernisation effort to Europe’s digital-sovereignty dialogue, underlines that our technology and our approach are both trusted and strategically relevant. Across our portfolio, the focus is on delivery. We’re building technology that solves specific operational problems and taking it through the right processes to make it usable, secure, and scalable for defence customers. The engagement we’re seeing, from end users, industry, and allies, shows that what we’re building is deployable and mission-critical.”
This development highlights the growing importance of sovereign-AI capabilities in modern defence strategies. As NATO and its allies accelerate their digital transformation, the demand for secure, scalable, and operationally ready AI solutions will only intensify. Defence Technologies’ participation in these high-profile events not only demonstrates its technological prowess but also positions the company as a key player in shaping the future of defence innovation.