France's Thales Launches HexaForce to Challenge US Palantir With Sovereign NATO Command System.

Thales has positioned HexaForce against Palantir’s MSS NATO with a sovereign distributed command and control architecture designed for NATO and allied forces. The system targets the same data fusion and decision-support functions while emphasizing national data control, interoperability, and resilience under degraded communications.

HexaForce is designed to support operations involving more than 100,000 personnel while fusing military, civilian, and open-source data into a common tactical and operational picture, with testing aimed at increasing targeting throughput from about 100 to as many as 1,000 objectives per day. Its entry gives NATO members another option for future digital command architectures, although Palantir retains an operational maturity advantage through MSS NATO’s existing integration within Allied Command Operations.

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Thales HexaForce is designed to fuse multi-source battlefield data into a shared operational picture and support command decisions across NATO and allied forces. (Picture source: Thales)

The comparison remains uneven in terms of maturity. MSS NATO reached Full Technical Operational Capability on June 22, 2026, after meeting Allied Command Operations requirements. The system had already been used as the primary operational integration platform during Steadfast Duel 2025, an exercise in which NATO’s three Joint Force Commands trained simultaneously. Palantir therefore currently benefits from having a system already integrated into the Alliance’s operational environment, while HexaForce is still moving through its deployment and development phase.

On September 17, 2026, Thales announced the launch of HexaForce from its cortAIx site in Issy-les-Moulineaux, presenting it as a sovereign military command system supported by artificial intelligence. According to the company, the system is based on an open and distributed architecture with native support for NATO Federated Mission Networking and Data-Centric Security standards. The platform was also tested during CWIX 2026, NATO’s main environment for evaluating the interoperability of command, control, and communications systems.

Based on the characteristics disclosed so far, the comparison with Palantir becomes more direct. HexaForce is designed to fuse military, civilian, and open-source data, consolidate tactical and operational pictures in real time, and support both planning and targeting activities. Thales states that the system can support operations involving more than 100,000 personnel. Ongoing experimentation is also intended to increase processing capacity from around 100 to as many as 1,000 targeting objectives per day, providing an initial indication of the scale at which the company intends the system to operate.

The main distinction highlighted by Thales concerns the underlying architecture. Rather than reproducing the MSS NATO model, HexaForce is built around a distributed data network intended to preserve access to information even when communications are heavily degraded. This approach is designed to limit dependence on a single central node and retain processing capacity closer to deployed command posts. Control over data flows also remains with the user, an issue of particular relevance to European armed forces seeking to maintain digital sovereignty while remaining compatible with coalition networks.

The French Arcadia program forms part of this development path. Derived from work conducted under ARTEMIS.IA and tested during exercises including Dacian Fall and ORION 26, Arcadia was described by French Army officials as a national response to US architectures such as Maven. The objective was already to retain control over military data without giving up NATO interoperability. HexaForce now translates those principles into an offering intended not only for French forces but also for allied headquarters and multinational command structures.

Competition with Palantir therefore concerns less a single function than the speed and resilience of the command cycle. HexaForce is intended to help headquarters identify relevant information, prioritize targets, accelerate the allocation of effectors, and maintain a usable operational picture despite degraded links. In high-intensity conflict, where command posts may be displaced, jammed, or disconnected from higher echelons, distributed processing can reduce the vulnerability of the C2 structure. The same architecture is also intended to support logistics and maintenance by providing commanders with a broader view of the assets that are actually available.

The NATO market has also become more open than it was previously. On July 7, 2026, the NATO Communications and Information Agency awarded parallel contracts to Palantir, Anduril, and French company Athea for the first phase of the future Enhanced Air Command and Control program. This effort is separate from HexaForce, but it shows that the Alliance is now evaluating several suppliers for future digital command architectures.

The implications therefore extend beyond a comparison between two software systems. HexaForce provides European countries with an alternative centered on data sovereignty and NATO interoperability, while Palantir retains the advantage of a system already deployed and validated within the Alliance’s command structure. Competition is likely to revolve around technical performance, data governance, user control, and the ability to operate at scale. For both Europe and the United States, control over this digital layer is becoming an increasingly important element of military command structures and the security of coalition operations.

Written By Erwan Halna du Fretay - Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Erwan Halna du Fretay holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and has experience studying conflicts and global arms transfers. His research interests lie in Security and strategic studies, particularly the dynamics of the defense industry, the evolution of military technologies, and the strategic transformation of armed forces.