NATO ratified new rapid adoption action plan at summit
NATO members have officially endorsed the 2025 ‘Rapid Adoption Action Plan’ during the NATO Summit held in The Hague on 24-25 June, a move aimed at accelerating procurement processes across the alliance.
Backed by NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), this plan seeks to fast-track technology implementation within member nations, enhance the integration of innovative technologies, and address gaps in military capability development.
“This initiative is about knitting best practices across the alliance,” stated John Ridge, Chief Adoption Officer for the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), during a briefing on 17 June, prior to the summit.
The development of this plan has been a collaborative effort involving DIANA and NIF, benefiting from their extensive experience across the alliance and leveraging lessons learned in the scaling and adoption of new technologies.
The Rapid Adoption Action Plan
This action plan is structured around two primary “layers”: ambitions and initiatives, as detailed by NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Innovation, Hybrid and Cyber, Jean-Charles Ellermann-Kingombe, during the briefing.
The first layer outlines three core ambitions aimed at improving the acquisition processes: risk, pace, and funding.
The first ambition, risk, emphasizes the importance of embracing “acquisition risk” and adopting a “fail fast” approach, which is crucial as the innovation ecosystem increasingly embraces this model.
Accelerating Procurement
In terms of pace, NATO’s plan aims to shorten the development and acquisition cycle to just 24 months, from identifying capability needs to delivering solutions to the warfighter. This represents a significant shift from conventional procurement processes that can take years.
As for funding, while no specific financial target is assigned to this plan, it is noteworthy that NATO members are expected to agree on a 3.5% increase in core defense spending during the summit, representing a substantial commitment to funding. The goal of the action plan is to guide and optimize investment into innovation effectively.
The second layer of the plan consists of 19 initiatives, described by Ellermann-Kingombe as “policy tools.”
NATO Innovation Ranges
Among these initiatives is the establishment of new permanent experimentation facilities, termed ‘Innovation Ranges’, on NATO soil. These ranges will provide a venue for companies to test their products and technologies, drawing on insights gained from recent experiences in Ukraine.
The most advanced of these facilities is Sēlija testing range in Latvia, which enables NATO member companies to trial their uncrewed technology.
These innovation ranges bear resemblance to the UK Ministry of Defence’s BattleLab in Dorset, which allows companies to partner with experts to refine and assess their concepts.
NATO Innovation Badges
Another initiative highlighted in the plan involves the introduction of ‘NATO Innovation Badges’ for companies. These badges will serve as a hallmark of credibility for technological products, signaling to potential investors and buyers that the technology has been vetted and utilized by NATO.
The plan further outlines NATO’s commitment to better inform and integrate European innovators into the defense ecosystem.
This article has been updated following the publication of the plan.
Source: DSEI (2026-03-03T00:00:00Z)
