Across land, sea, air, space and cyber, military operations increasingly rely on data. That makes access to cloud technologies essential. A European Defence Agency-financed study has concluded that cloud computing can be applied to defence, both at the strategic level and in the field, to help European armed forces achieve information superiority against an adversary.
The EDA study over four years, ‘Cloud Intelligence for Decision Support and Analysis’ (CLAUDIA), looked at the application of civilian cloud technologies in defence, including computing capabilities, data storage and software tools hosted externally. Results of the study were presented on January 25th, with a view to follow-up activities looking at constraints to cloud computing in defence.
Given the pressures of the battlefield, such as relying on a range of connections from satellites to radios in an extreme environment, EDA’s research is crucial to increasing situational awareness and shortening reaction times across multiple domains.
As cloud technology uses virtualisation − creating a virtual version of servers, storage devices and networks using software − the study focused on the overall advantages for defence. These are simplicity, flexibility and the ability to scale up in military environments, as well as working with ‘big data’ supported by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. These advantages can significantly improve the situational awareness and decision-making process both at strategic and tactical level.
CLAUDIA’s objective was to research using cloud technologies to support analysis of hybrid warfare including:
Thanks to CLAUDIA, a Software Analysis (SWAN) platform has been developed to demonstrate the cloud-based capabilities, with different modules to address the different technology topics, including:
The demonstration showcased the benefits of cloud technologies with the SWAN platform at both the strategic and tactical level. Edge computing – at or near the location of either the user or the data source – was also introduced to demonstrate the benefits of using such technologies in the field, providing real-time situational awareness with enhanced data and visual capabilities. The demonstration included simulation and wargaming for a hybrid warfare scenario, with the use of wargaming and advanced training and exercises capabilities. The study recommended making the SWAN platform available to all Member States for further testing.
EDA's wider roleEDA supports its 27 Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the hub for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks allowing it to the whole spectrum of defence capabilities.
Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. For more details, please see here.
A ground-breaking defence research project exploring the application of quantum technologies in defence in the areas of secure communication and navigation has successfully closed. QuantaQuest – Quantum Secure Communication and Navigation for European Defence - a 28-month EU-funded project under the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) held its final meeting in December 2023, after delivering on a variety of operational scenarios and developments.
Led by THALES SA (France), the p roject brought together nine defence companies and research institutes from three Member States - France, Italy, and the Netherlands - with a budget of approximately € 1.5 million. The project proposed the development of quantum sensors and communication for defence applications in the following fields:
During the final meeting at the European Defence Agency (EDA), QuantaQuest consortium detailed the scenarios and requirements and presented the main technological developments across the three areas highlighted above.
In the positioning and timing part, the project developed an important building block toward a deployable fully quantum inertial measurement unit for fully autonomous positioning and timing. Using cold atoms trapped in a chip and photonic integrated circuit technologies will take the benefits of ultraprecise quantum measurements while reducing its size. This will allow to integrate the technology into future mobile systems to navigate precisely with reduced drift even in global satellite navigation systems denied environments.
In the field of secure communications for C4ISR, the project implemented a free-space quantum key distribution in an urban environment. With this the photons are sent via free air instead of transferring them via an optical fibre connection. Future systems applying this technology will help in operation to securely transfer the keys for encrypted communication.
Finally, the project developed a quantum interface and evaluated the performances of a quantum synchronisation of two clocks, leading to disruptive improvements concerning the sensors sensitivity.
QuantaQuest also investigated operational scenarios of use of the previously mentioned quantum technologies to build the next step roadmap for the military application of quantum technologies. Building on the progress made over the past 28 months, QuantaQuest also kicked off a follow up project “ADEQUADE - Advanced, Disruptive and Emerging Quantum technologies for Defence” funded under European Defence Fund (EDF) 2021.
QuantaQuest and PADR
QuantaQuest project is funded under the Preparatory Action for Defence Research (PADR) call on the topic “Future Disruptive Defence Technologies – Emerging Game-changers”, subtopic “Quantum Technologies for defence applications”.
PADR was launched by the European Commission in 2017 to assess and demonstrate the added value of EU supported defence research and technology (R&T). It paved the way for a proper European Defence Programme to come as part of the European Defence Fund (EDF), under the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (2021-2027).
The PADR implementation is run by EDA following the mandate via a Delegation Agreement between the European Commission and EDA signed on 31 May 2017. Under this agreement, the Commission entrusts EDA with the management and implementation of the research projects launched within the PADR.