The French Armament General Directorate (DGA) has selected Athea for the third phase of its Architecture for Processing and Massive Exploitation of Multi-source Information and Artificial Intelligence (Artemis.IA) project.
Athea is a joint venture of Atos and Thales.
The latest phase of the project, initiated by the Digital Defense Agency, is set to provide a scalable and secure solution for massive data processing and artificial intelligence (AI).
It will focus on the scaling-up and industrialisation of the platform, which was delivered during a previous phase.
While the first phase dealt with the creation of a proof of concept, the second phase involves the implementation and evaluation of demonstrations.
As many as 100 experts from Athea and the industrial and technological defence big data ecosystem have been working on the industrialisation phase for a year.
The creation of successive standards, along with training and support, will take place over a period of three years.
Athea president Philippe Gasc said: “Data exploitation represents a major challenge to maintain the operational superiority of the armed forces.
“We are proud to develop a sovereign solution that will enable France to act autonomously in the areas of intelligence, operations command and in the digital space.”
The platform, meant to support joint intelligence functions, is expected to be deployed starting from 2023.
Athea’s solution will allow the French Ministry of Armed Forces to create new AI applications within its systems and provide controlled information sharing.
The modular platform is also expected to support the ministry in various other areas, such as defence and administration.
In June, the DGA notified the first order for the contract.
