He who controls the data controls the war

In a geopolitical context marked by growing instability, from the war in Ukraine to the global race for technological armaments, Europe must build its strategic autonomy, which passes through the digital and digitisation of defence. The efforts of the European defence plans go in this direction, but it is not enough to develop the defence industry. When this meets digital, appropriate governance measures are needed. The large amount of data generated in war scenarios - positions, movements, environmental conditions, human performance - is nowadays managed by private, often non-European, technology companies. These data are not just operational resources: they are strategic assets. If we do not control them, we lose sovereignty and security.

In the contemporary defence world, dominance is no longer just air, land or naval. It is digital. Information, and especially data, has become the key element for the tactical and strategic effectiveness of any operation. Drones, satellites, cyber warfare, predictive systems and automated decision-making: everything revolves around the acquisition, processing and interpretation of data. A field in which artificial intelligence is playing an increasing role.

But the chain of data control is today opaque, fragmented, unbalanced and often outsourced.

A significant part of the data produced in military and defence contexts passes through privately managed digital infrastructures. In many cases, governments do not have control. This imbalance has enormous consequences: ethical, legal, operational and geopolitical.

In a Europe aiming for strategic autonomy, it is no longer possible to entrust digital security to market logic.