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

Finnish IT magazine Tivi reports on the STRATUS project  led by Nortal (Talgen Cybersecurity) and its focus on improving the cyber resilience of autonomous systems in disrupted environments, highlighting the growing importance of resilience in modern defence systems.

The STRATUS project will develop a multi-layered, AI-driven, risk-based cyber defence architecture for autonomous systems and swarms of unmanned vehicles. The aim is to ensure that these systems can continue operating, adapt, and recover even in these disrupted environments. The topic has become a central focus in European defence development following the war in Ukraine and the rapidly evolving security environment.

“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 solutions developed in the project aim to enable autonomous systems to detect cyber threats, adapt to changing conditions in real time, recover from disruption, and maintain operational integrity and mission continuity under attack. The participation of Finnish partners highlights the growing importance of national expertise in cybersecurity and defence technology within European cooperation.

“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.”

The STRATUS consortium consists of 13 organisations from across Europe. Finnish participants include Turku University of Applied Sciences and JAMK University of Applied Sciences. The project also includes a Ukrainian subcontractor, bringing operational insights and practical experience from real-world battlefield conditions.

The project is expected to accelerate the development of Europe’s defence capabilities and strengthen the role of autonomous systems as reliable force multipliers in future defence operations.

Explore the full article in Finnish in Tivi.