Dassault and Thales enter strategic partnership for defence AI

The two companies presented their AI development plans at the Adopt AI Summit following the partnership agreement signed on 18 November.

Dassault Aviation and Thales, via its artificial intelligence accelerator cortAIx, have entered into a strategic partnership to develop supervised and sovereign AI for defence aeronautics. The partnership was signed by Dassault Aviation chairman and CEO Eric Trappier and Thales chairman and CEO Patrice Caine on 18 November.

The collaboration aims to build trusted AI functions for manned and unmanned aircraft, supporting observation, situation analysis, decision-making, planning and control during military operations.

“This partnership is reflected in research and innovation programmes dedicated to the collaborative air combat of the future, with a view to incorporating AI into aeronautical defence systems. It is the culmination of strategic discussions launched by Dassault Aviation and Thales’ AI accelerator, cortAIx, and illustrates our shared commitment to trusted, sovereign and controlled artificial intelligence for the armed forces,” says Pascale Lohat, Chief Technical Officer at Dassault Aviation.

According to Mickael Brossard, Vice-President of cortAIx Factory at Thales: “cortAIx will bring to this strategic partnership with Dassault Aviation the best of Thales’ technological heritage, enriched by decades of military experience, combined with the agility and dynamics of a powerful innovation accelerator.”

The partners are working with a global ecosystem in line with European regulations, including the AI Act, and presented their strategy at the Adopt AI Summit in Paris.