Improved cyber defence operations capabilities

Expected Impact:The outcomes should contribute to:

• The improvement of the efficiency and adaptability for distributed action in the context of military operations in the cyberspace domain.
• An easier incorporation of new technologies and collaborative tactics, techniques, and procedures to EU cyberspace operations.
• The improvement of the implementation of operational strategy by strengthening the decomposition of cyber forces for tasks and battlespace domains.
• A stronger, more competitive, and technologically independent European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) when it comes to solutions for cyber defence capabilities, cyberspace operations and Cyber Situational Awareness.
• Improve the interoperability and future capabilities of EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries forces in the area of cyber defence for conducting cyberspace operations.
• Promote cooperative efforts in this area leveraging the implementation of EU Policy on Cyber Defence (EPCD).
• Enhance the resilience of EU cyberspace, mitigate known risks, and protect mission networks from cyber threats.

Objective:The dynamic and effective integration of cyberspace into military operational domains presents an intricate and urgent matter for the EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries defence community, which requires new strategies, concepts, architectures, processes and capabilities to enable a complete integration at conducting military operations.

In EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries military doctrines, cyberspace is conceptualised as a dynamically distributed and interconnected domain, where operations unfold in an intangible and rapidly evolving landscape. This domain fosters distributed decision-making, where actions taken within interconnected networks have cross-domain impacts, which can be seen as a challenge for decision-makers, but also as an opportunity to explore distributed decision-centric warfare possibilities.

Specific objective

The specific objective of this call topic is to develop state-of-the-art, effective, and reliable solutions that operate and, where possible, automate larger parts of EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries military cyberspace operations in a distributed manner, including the synchronisation of kinetic and cyber exercises across domains that present multiple dilemmas to adversaries.

Proposals should demonstrate the capacity to develop such a capability aligned with the needs for military cyberspace operations.

This call topic contributes to the STEP objectives, as defined in STEP Regulation, in the target investment area of deep and digital technologies.

Scope:This topic aims at consolidating existing National and EU initiatives and projects to address cyberspace challenges and assist cyberspace integration in military operations in a mosaic and/or distributed approach, where emerging technological enablers like artificial intelligence, distributed sensor networks, cloud computing, data fusion or simulation for serious wargaming are expected to play a major role. The proposals must cover the following areas:

• Cyber Force Multiplication: leveraging on automation and distribution to significantly enhance the overall effectiveness and impact of cyber operations. This involves using cyber tools, Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs), and resources to augment traditional military capabilities, such as Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), C2, defensive operations, etc.
• Cyber Command Augmentation: transference and coordination of decision-making power between decentralised units, nodes, actuators and/or cyber operators. This decentralisation of command allows for quicker response times, more agile decision-making, and the ability to adapt to rapidly evolving threats in cyberspace. It enables units and operators to autonomously assess the situation, identify targets, and take appropriate courses of action.
• Self-Adaptive protection: autonomous and dynamic protection of own assets and mission progress against cyber threats and attacks. A self-adaptive protection system can detect anomalies, identify malicious activities, and automatically adjust defence mechanisms to mitigate or neutralise cyber incidents and threats as the operational conditions evolve. In the context of mission assurance, decisions on changes for reactively or proactively respond shouldbe facilitated. This enables self-protection and self-healing at both technical but also mission level.

Types of activities

The following types of activities are eligible for this topic:

Types of activities

(art 10(3) EDF Regulation)

Eligible

(a)

Activities that aim to create, underpin and improve knowledge, products and technologies, including disruptive technologies, which can achieve significant effects in the area of defence (generating knowledge)

No

(b)

Activities that aim to increase interoperability and resilience, including secured production and exchange of data, to master critical defence technologies, to strengthen the security of supply or to enable the effective exploitation of results for defence products and technologies (integrating knowledge)

Yes (mandatory)

(c)

Studies, such as feasibility studies to explore the feasibility of new or upgraded products, technologies, processes, services and solutions

Yes

(mandatory)

(d)

Design of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology as well as the definition of the technical specifications on which such design has been developed, including partial tests for risk reduction in an industrial or representative environment

Yes (mandatory)

(e)

System prototyping of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology (prototype)

Yes (mandatory)

(f)

Testing of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology

Yes

(optional)

(g)

Qualification of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology

Yes

(optional)

(h)

Certification of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology

Yes

(optional)

(i)

Development of technologies or assets increasing efficiency

across the life cycle of defence products and technologies

Yes

(optional)

Accordingly, the proposals must cover at least the following tasks as part of mandatory activities:

• Studies and Design: • Of a solution capable of identify mission-centric opportunities for cyberspace operations in cyber force distribution and reduction of human intervention, assistance for mission planning and execution.
• To accommodate the solution to existing and/or ongoing military systems, enable the exchange of information between the involved actors, ensure interoperability and support the life-cycle management for resulting capabilities.

• System Prototyping: • Prototyping of the design solutions. The prototyping tasks must include the involvement of stakeholders from relevant EU Member States and EDF Associated countries.

The following tasks should be performed as part of the optional activities:

• Testing • Of complementary large-scale demonstrators supported by national and EU end-users on tactical, operational, and strategical use-cases.

The duration of proposal implementation should not exceed 24 months.

Proposals should substantiate synergies and complementarity with foreseen, ongoing or completed activities at national, multinational, or EU level, notably those described in the call topics EDIDP-CSAMN-SSC-2019 on Software suite enabling real–time cyber defence situational awareness for military decision-making, EDF-2022-DA-C4ISR-EC2 on European command and control system, EDF-2021-CYBER-R-CDAI on Improving cyber defence and incident management with Artificial Intelligence and EDF-2023-DA-CYBER-CSA on Cyber situational awareness.

In addition, interfaces with existing and under development EU, NATO and national systems should be substantiated to ensure future interoperability.

Functional requirements

The proposals should meet the following functional requirements:

• Orchestration and synchronisation of distributed cyber actions in the context of military cyberspace operations. This includes coordination of cyber combat operations, incident response workflows, and playbooks for assisting full-spectrum operations.
• Decentralised battlespace management, considering areas of operations, responsibility, interest etc, for each of the distributed actors when planning and executing actions.
• Mechanisms for tracking and, when possible, monitoring cyber activities and actions performed by the distributed cyber force. The solution must consider audit trails and logs to ensure accountability and traceability, as well as compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
• Development of mission-centric and shared cyber situational awareness between the distributed cyber force at planning and execution of cyber missions.
• Cyber defence function disaggregation, which should allow functional separation into independent components so they can be distributed between actors.
• Analysis and Assessment of multiple action patches for cyberspace operations. Proposals may consider simulation and modelling capabilities to assess feasibility and explore opportunities.
• Transparent and explainable AI algorithms to provide commanders with insight into the decision-making process, ensuring human oversight. Management of human intervention and chain of command.

Proposal should be flexible to adapt and customise solution configurations based on mission requirements. Developments should cover scenarios at all war levels (i.e., strategical, operational, tactical, and technical), but the focus must be on tactical and operational level.