Nortal-led consortium secures €19.9 million European Defence Fund project to advance cyber resilience of autonomous military systems

STRATUS brings together partners from across Europe under the European Defence Fund, supporting the development of defence capabilities at EU level. The project will focus on enabling autonomous systems to operate in contested cyber and electromagnetic environments by developing a multi-layered, AI-driven, risk-based cyber defence architecture designed for autonomous vehicle swarms.

While unmanned systems extend operational reach and reduce risk to personnel, their deep cyber-physical integration also introduces systemic vulnerabilities, where disruption in one component can affect entire formations. The initiative addresses a growing operational challenge in modern defence: ensuring autonomous systems can continue to operate when exposed to disruption, interference or attack. STRATUS will develop a multi-layered, AI-driven, risk-based cyber defence architecture designed specifically for autonomous vehicle swarms. 

“Defence systems today operate as interconnected multi-domain networks rather than standalone platforms,” said Aron Haljaste, Vice President of Defence R&D at Nortal. “The challenge is no longer only how to protect individual systems, but how to ensure resilience across the entire system of systems under disruption. STRATUS is designed to address that shift.” 

The project focuses on resilience as a core capability — enabling systems not only to withstand attacks but to adapt, recover and continue their mission. The consortium will develop and validate technologies that allow autonomous systems to detect and withstand cyber and electromagnetic threats, adapt in real time to adversarial conditions, and maintain operational integrity and mission continuity under attack.

The expected outcome is a new approach to cyber resilience for autonomous systems, supporting their use as reliable force multipliers in contested environments and contributing to Europe’s defence capability development.

“Future operational environments will be defined by persistent disruption across cyber and electromagnetic domains,” said Haljaste. “This project is about ensuring autonomous systems can recover, adapt and continue their mission, not just avoid failure.”

STRATUS also includes input from a Ukrainian subcontractor, which contributes operational insights from real-world battlefield conditions and reinforces the project’s relevance to current threat environments.

About the Consortium

The consortium brings together 13 partners from across Europe. The project is coordinated by Nortal (Talgen Cybersecurity), with consortium members including Aliter Technologies, EBOS Technologies, Fundacion Centro Tecnoloxico de Telecomunicacions de Galicia, INEGI - Instituto de Ciencia e Inovacao em Engenharia Mecanica e Engenharia Industrial, Invisible Things Lab, ITTI, Jyväkylän Ammattikorkeakoulu, Mälardalens Universitet, Milrem Robotics, Safran Electronics & Defense, Turun Ammattikorkeakoulu, and Wayren.