AI and digital twins strengthen digital sovereignty, essential for defense. Data control, strategic autonomy and interoperability are key in the face of geopolitical tensions.
Present for years in discussions dealing with resilience, competitiveness and strategic autonomy, digital sovereignty has become, in a context of calling into question old strategic alliances, a major issue for the entire European defense sector. We have now reached a point of no return where digital sovereignty can no longer be limited to a simple political objective: it has become an essential requirement for global security. If AI serves as the leading subject in these questions, it is the entire infrastructure that must be (re)considered, with digital twins allowing a global vision of organizations.
In an uncertain geopolitical context, the global security architecture seems to be preparing for the worst: NATO military spending is expected to exceed $2.42 billion in 2026, an amount that is constantly increasing. Across the Atlantic, the United States aims to field the most powerful and technologically advanced military in the world, supported by a robust industrial base. In France, the 2024-2030 Military Programming Law provides for an increase in the army budget, from 32.3 billion in 2017 to 50.5 billion in 2025, and expected to reach 67.4 billion by 2030, making it possible to “accelerate the rearmament of France in order to resolutely pivot towards high intensity”. European countries are increasing their defense budgets and must now translate these financial commitments into operational capabilities.
To successfully carry out this transformation, professionals in the sector must develop a technological base enabling intelligent operations, based on digital sovereignty. But in a context where historical partnerships between nations are being called into question, mastery of technological infrastructure is becoming an essential foundation of any defense strategy. It is only under this condition that European powers are able to give individuals, organizations and national leaders the means to innovate, optimize and pool resources while collaborating on a large scale.
The need for digital sovereignty
In this context, digital sovereignty is emerging as a strategic priority for States, organizations and critical industries. It is based on the ability of economic and institutional players to maintain control of their data, their systems and, more broadly, their digital future.
Technology must therefore contribute to the strengthening of democratic principles by expanding the capacity of citizens, businesses and nations to decide, act and innovate in full conscience. This means prioritizing transparency over opacity, accountability over convenience, and choice over dependence, while strongly opposing the use of technology, data, and infrastructure as tools of coercion or control. Consequently, emphasis will be placed on operational transparency and strategic autonomy while emphasizing the necessary freedom of choice for individuals and respect for their fundamental freedoms.
Faced with the acceleration of digital and geopolitical transformations, organizations are therefore seeking technological environments that are resilient, reliable and compliant with the legal, regulatory and ethical frameworks in which they operate. Digital sovereignty thus becomes an essential lever to guarantee trust, security and continuity of operations in an interconnected world.
An interoperable layer of sovereign intelligence
For more than a decade, the most advanced organizations have relied on the creation of operational digital twins in order to better understand how their processes and therefore their business actually work. This approach makes it possible to analyze operations as they are executed, to adapt them to evolving constraints while sustainably improving operational performance, allowing organizations to rethink their processes in order to adapt to the situation and obtain the best possible results within the framework of their mission.
The emergence of this technology constitutes, with controlled management of its data, an essential basis for the effective integration of artificial intelligence into operations. By providing the necessary operational context, digital twins give AI the context it needs to enable strategic deployment transparently and coherently with existing systems, while ensuring performance management and ROI measurement.
In defense sectors, this development is reflected in the growing adoption of European platforms capable of integrating and contextualizing data from multiple systems. These open approaches promote the acceleration of the strategic autonomy of military and industrial operations while allowing organizations to better anticipate and respond to constantly evolving threat environments.
This European-scale digital transformation strengthens industrial resilience through end-to-end visibility into supply chains, leading to reduced disruption and improved lead time control while optimizing complex logistics and MRO cycles to improve resource availability and operational capacity.
Building resilience in an uncertain world
Digital sovereignty is often misinterpreted as an isolationist attitude: a wall erected around data to confine it within national borders. But in the current geopolitical context, this type of siled approach can quickly become a vulnerability. True sovereignty is about autonomy: the freedom to decide how we act, how we innovate and how we collaborate, both nationally and Europeanly. It is the power of choice.
Our most critical challenges will never be solved by siled intelligences. This is why we believe that European digital sovereignty must be shared rather than isolated. It constitutes the bridge allowing us to maintain control of our digital destiny while building the secure interoperable ecosystems necessary for collective defense. Modern defense is multilateral by nature. This requires that we apply our values consistently, both to ourselves and to our partners and competitors. It is when they are put to the test, and not when they suit us, that values take on their full meaning. The establishment of this open ecosystem, based on common standards, mutual interest and respect for the dignity of each person, is not only a strategic option, but the foundation on which tomorrow’s security must rest.
