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Summary of NATO’s Aggregated Demand Signal to Industry and Innovation Ecosystems Across the Alliance
1. United in the face of profound security threats and challenges, in particular the long-term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security and the persistent threat of terrorism, the Alliance needs to accelerate the growth of defence industrial capacity and production. Drawing on the total demand for Allied defence capabilities, NATO has therefore developed a list of prioritised capabilities, intended to inform considerations across the industrial sector and galvanise activities to urgently match production with NATO’s priorities.
2. The following problem statements and desired end-states provide details and descriptions on these prioritised requirements for defence capabilities out to 2035. The information is based on generic capabilities that satisfy NATO’s defence planning requirements and offer increased potential to be addressed through innovation and the adoption of novel solutions.
3. In parallel, the Alliance needs to continue developing and adopting new technologies. The projected aggregated need for new technologies and alternative solutions is the largest in the priority areas outlined below.
4. By distributing NATO’s Aggregated Demand Signal, NATO aims to inform industry’s and innovation ecosystem’s investment decisions, production facility management and workforce planning; support supply chain reinforcement; foster co-design, co-development and co-production; and enable an agile and resilient defence industry across the Alliance capable of matching growth of sustainable and scalable capacity with the Alliance’s needs.
5. This public summary does not constitute a formal procurement notice. It is an expression of aggregated demand for solutions in the included capability areas. For more information, including potential procurement notices please contact your national Department/ Ministry of Defence procurement authority, defence innovation organisation or equivalent organisation.
6. NATO will seek feedback from industry and innovation ecosystems across the Alliance on this Demand Signal through Allied innovation entities and other engagement mechanisms, such as the NATO Industry Forum, the NATO Industry Advisory Group (NIAG) and other NATO-organised industry events.
Problem Statement: To maintain tactical superiority in increasingly complex and dynamic operational conditions, Allied forces must enhance the lethality, mobility, protection, and combat effectiveness of their land domain capabilities enabling them to operate with speed across diverse urban and rural terrain and climatic conditions in the face of near-peer adversary forces. This requires increased coordination, synchronization, and precision of indirect fires from different ranges, as well as close air support for land manoeuvre formations to ensure operational effectiveness. These tasks must be performed rapidly, under conditions of poor visibility and electronic interference with imperfect information.
- Future force structures should treat uncrewed elements as integral components to operations, including in land operations on the battlefield.
- Expanded Allied uncrewed and autonomous capabilities should deliver persistence, flexibility and reduced risk to personnel in high threat environments.
- Increased integration of uncrewed systems into operations will require new Command and Control (C2) protocols, more EW resistant communications, particularly in contested electro-magnetic environments.
Desired end state: Your solution should in whole or in part:
- Provide an optimal cost-per hit ratio;
- Increase the lethality of ground forces to defeat armoured vehicles; irrespective of time of day or climatic conditions;
- Enhance the lethality, mobility, survivability, agility, durability, repairability, and manoeuvrability of Allied land systems;
- Deliver lethal or non-lethal effects to area or point targets at extended ranges;
- Increase the speed at which threats can be acquired, identified, engaged, and assessed;
- Enhance intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance conducted by ground forces;
- Enhance the precision, extend the persistence and increase the responsiveness and rapidity of operations conducted from the air in close proximity to the ground in support of operations;
- Increase lethal and non-lethal effects from enhanced air/ground coordination, synchronization, and precision;
- Comply with NATO standards for interoperability.
Problem Statement: The growing number, diversity, and complexity of air and missile threats, coupled with the increasing proliferation of advanced ballistic missile systems, present significant challenges to Allied forces and critical infrastructure. These threats include Uncrewed Aerial Systems, low, slow, and small air-breathing targets, rocket, artillery, and mortar attacks, as well as sophisticated ballistic and hypersonic missiles capable of striking key sites such as ports, airfields, and other high-value assets.
Defence systems must be capable of simultaneously acquiring, tracking, prioritising, and engaging threats at varying ranges, under all-weather conditions, and at high readiness. Neutralising or reducing the effectiveness of these threats requires robust defences layered in depth, and real time Command, Control and Communications that ensure uninterrupted operations, safeguard strategic assets, and maintain operational dominance in complex multi-domain environments. Solutions should address the cost per round and depth of magazines.
Swarm-capable autonomous drones will significantly complicate existing air-defence and force protection measures.
Desired end state: Your solution should in whole or in part:
- Provide an optimal cost-per hit ratio;
- Enhance the real-time detection, identification, tracking, sharing and engagement or air and missile threats, including that of multiple simultaneous threats from multiple axes (directions, heights) of attack, irrespective of time of day and weather;
- Support the increased mobility, repairability and deployability of these defences and facilitate the acquisition of targets by as many different sensors as wider intelligence, surveillance and target acquisition system will permit;
- Enable real-time data exchange from other air and missile defence systems for early warning and cueing;
- Be resistant to saturation;
- Comply with NATO standards for interoperability.
Problem Statement: Heavily defended, dispersed and fortified high value targets at extended ranges, pose a major challenge to operations across land, air, and maritime domains. These challenges are often compounded by operating environments where the electromagnetic spectrum is denied or degraded further hindering information-sharing, coordination and decision-making. Targets are frequently positioned near civilian infrastructure, making precision critical for operational success.
Network-enabled weapon systems able to strike targets deep within opposing territory and launched from platforms that cannot be engaged from opposing Integrated Air and Missile Defence System are required. These capabilities must operate effectively in threatened environments, penetrating integrated air defence systems to destroy, neutralize, suppress, or degrade high value targets with accuracy.
Desired end-state: Allies are able to precisely and effectively strike high value targets over varying ranges in denied and contested environments in support of air, ground and maritime operations.
Your solution should wholly or in part permit the precise, rapid, accurate strike of targets. Such strikes should minimise unintended impacts on friendly forces and allow strategic advantage through rapid and unpredictable engagement of targets. Allies seek to deliver
these effects with an optimal cost-per hit ratio solution. Your solution should comply with NATO standards for interoperability.
Problem Statement: to support Allied manoeuvre forces, provide a fully enabled medical architecture, including casualty collection, patient flow and treatment.
A mix of crewed and uncrewed casualty evacuation capabilities must be able to operate effectively across diverse terrain, in extreme weather conditions, and in Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) affected environments to ensure casualty survivability and continuity of care. Medical treatment facilities must be connected with effective and protected medical evacuation.
Logistic chains will place an expanded reliance upon autonomous uncrewed systems for casualty evacuation in contested environments.
Desired end state: Your solution should, wholly or in part, provide more cost effective, deployable, modular, scalable, adaptable and interoperable:
- responsive casualty evacuation in all threat scenarios;
- emergency and secondary health care;
- advanced trauma care;
- intensive care support;
- capacity to hold casualties;
- diagnostic capabilities;
- and specialized treatment for CBRN threats.
Problem Statement: Military operations require versatile and resilient logistic networks to support a wide range of missions, including troop movement, aeromedical evacuation, reconnaissance, surveillance, joint personnel recovery, aerial delivery, and transport of heavy cargo, vehicles, and supplies. Adversaries may target supply chains and logistical infrastructure, making it critical for Allies to ensure uninterrupted resupply, mobility, and operational readiness.
Additionally, logistics capabilities must be interoperable with multinational forces and communication systems, able to operate effectively in day and night conditions, and able to carry troops, equipment, or supplies with extended range and endurance.
- Adaptive logistics will be increasingly in demand to respond to large scale crisis events driven by degraded physical environment.
- Increased operational tempo will stretch logistics, lift and readiness, requiring scalable, adaptive posture and forward leaning arrangements.
Desired end state: Allies are able to conduct operations with speed, precision and reliability through resilient and adaptable integrated logistic supply chains.
Your solution should in whole or in part:
- Provide a more cost-effective solution to sustain military operations;
- Facilitate the delivery and use of supplies, including under extreme weather and austere conditions, in all threat scenarios, and diverse qualities of infrastructure;
- Enhance manoeuvrability, mobility and durability to ensure continued logistic support and sustainment including under hostile activity and keeping pace with the movement of forces;
- Comply with NATO standards for interoperability.
NATO’s shift towards a problem-centric demand approach is a significant step forward. By defining the challenges that need to be solved, rather than prescribing solutions, NATO can harness the creativity and ingenuity of its start-up and scale-up ecosystem. This creates the conditions for a new era of Allied innovation - one where the NIF ensures that the most promising startups have the capital and the confidence to turn their boldest ideas into capabilities that defend and strengthen our Alliance.
President of the NIF
The public launch by NATO of this Aggregated Demand Signal is an important step toward strengthening the relationship between innovative capacity and critical defense capability. In my role at DIANA over the last three years, I have seen firsthand that innovators across the Alliance have the talent, technological expertise and determination to support NATO's most urgent needs. The Aggregated Demand Signal will enable the people already working at the leading edge to tell us how they can help, rather than prescribing solutions that may not take the full breadth of emerging technology into account. We welcome this move to further strengthen the role of innovation within NATO’s operations: our innovators are ready to rise to the challenge.
COO NATO DIANA
The NIAG welcomes this important step to further communicate the Alliance’s defence priorities to innovators and wider industry. Through defining problems to be solved and the effects sought, this Demand Signal will help to inspire innovators to develop technology to help Allies meet their capability targets. This Demand Signal draws the attention of industry and funders to what they need to invest and why to support Allies in over the next ten years. It will allow innovators to better make their case how their technology can deliver the effects needed by Allies to tackle their most pressing defence priorities. We look forward to playing our part to mainstream this demand signal across the Alliance’s defence innovation ecosystem and wider industrial base.
NATO Industrial Advisory Group (NIAG), Chair
What to do next?
Explore opportunities to engage with NATO and the wider Allied defence and innovation ecosystem.
- Contact your defence industry association to learn how it is raising awareness of the NATO Innovation Demand Signal.
- Find and subscribe to the mailing lists of your national defence innovation agency.
- Contact the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) to explore participation in challenges related to the Demand Signal.
- Register with your Ministry of Defence procurement authority to stay informed about upcoming procurement opportunities related to the Demand Signal.
- Monitor the websites of your Ministry of Defence procurement or acquisition organisation for relevant updates and opportunities.