NEWS / SEP.2026
Thales launches HexaForce, its AI-assisted military command system
On 17 September 2026, Thales launched HexaForce, an AI-assisted command and control system intended for NATO and allied countries. The group announces availability from 2026 and presents its offering as sovereign and outside US ITAR controls.
Reuters reports Patrice Caine’s call for an international framework for AI and the presentation of HexaForce as sovereign and outside ITAR controls, according to Thales
On 17 September 2026, Thales launched HexaForce, its AI-enhanced command and control system. The group is targeting NATO and allied countries with this offering and claims control over the flow of sensitive data.
HexaForce arrives after NATO has already selected an American supplier. The NCIA announced on 14 April 2025 the acquisition of Palantir’s Maven Smart System NATO, finalized on 25 March 2025, for Allied Command Operations, including SHAPE, its military headquarters. Thales adds a European offering to this market.
Thales presents HexaForce as sovereign and outside US ITAR controls. This status concerns the US regulatory constraints in question, without establishing complete independence of its components, models or infrastructure.
Patrice Caine, CEO of Thales, also called on 17 September for an international framework for AI development, Reuters reports. The dispatch also relays the group’s descriptions of HexaForce as sovereign and outside ITAR controls.
Bringing data together to assist command
According to Thales, HexaForce combines military data with open-source and civilian information, then prioritizes it to provide situational awareness. Language models and agentic AI are intended to assist with planning, among other tasks. The intended benefit is to make this wealth of information usable by military headquarters.
The announced architecture is open and interoperable, designed to connect to systems from third-party companies. This integration aims to bring together information from different tools. Thales also links HexaForce to experience gained from Artemis.IA, which the group says has been deployed at the French Ministry of the Armed Forces since 2023.
Thales announces that HexaForce will be available from 2026 and states that the system was successfully tested during NATO’s CWIX 2026 exercise.
The targeting figure varies between a goal and a claimed result
Thales refers to an increase from 100 to 1 000 targeting objectives analyzed each day. Its press release presents this increase as a goal that trials are paving the way for. On its page dedicated to the HexaForce launch, the group states that this increase has already been achieved in trials.
These figures concern the volume of targeting objectives analyzed daily. They indicate neither the accuracy of the recommendations nor the number of targets destroyed.