Systematic wins contract to deliver Denmark's first AI-ready counter-drone command-and-control system

TLDR

• Denmark's defence acquisition agency DALO awarded Systematic a contract to deliver an AI-ready command-and-control capability for counter-drone defence.¹²
• Systematic calls it the first known NATO-member contract for a C2 system built to integrate AI-supported analysis.¹
• The system integrates Systematic's SitaWare Suite with Terma's existing OSL counter-drone system to build a shared operational picture across Danish sites.¹²
• The award follows a September warning from Denmark's Defence Intelligence Service about rising Russian hybrid-warfare and drone activity against Western countries.¹

Systematic has been awarded a contract by the Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO) to deliver an AI-ready command-and-control capability for counter-drone defence, which the company says is the first known contract by a NATO member for a C2 system designed to integrate AI-supported analysis.¹² The capability will be deployed across Denmark, integrating Systematic's SitaWare Suite with existing counter-drone systems so military and civilian agencies can work from a common operational picture.¹

SitaWare Headquarters will give commanders oversight of counter-drone activity across sites and military domains, while SitaWare Insight applies AI-supported analysis of historical and near-real-time data to flag patterns, anomalies and potential threats.¹² The new capability will also integrate with Terma's OSL counter-drone system, a contract announced earlier in the summer, bringing sensor information into the same shared, near-real-time operational picture.¹

"The nature of warfare is changing, and drones are now an everyday part of the threat environment," said Nikolaj Bramsen, CEO of Systematic. "The answer is not simply more sensors or more individual systems. It is the ability to connect information, understand what it means and act on it quickly."¹ Lieutenant General Per Pugholm Olsen, Chief of DALO, said the agreement helps ensure "the Armed Forces can work from a common situational picture, so that the Armed Forces have the best possible conditions to detect and respond to potential threats."¹

The deal comes after a September assessment from Denmark's Defence Intelligence Service warning of an increased risk of Russian hybrid-warfare activity against Western countries, including drone use, following reported drone incidents near Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport and airspace violations involving NATO members Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Norway.¹

Why it matters: this is one of the first NATO-member counter-drone contracts explicitly built around AI-supported command and control rather than just more sensors or interceptors, and it ties into a wider pattern of European militaries rushing to connect fragmented detection systems into a single operational picture as drone incursions along NATO's eastern and northern flanks keep increasing.