Held from 19–30 October, the event was led by Allied Command Transformation, supported by Latvia’s defence ministry and armed forces, with LMT Defence as technical integrator. More than 60 technology partners participated alongside countries including Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, the United States, Canada and Finland.
One experiment explored creating a private 5G network slice on a host nation’s mobile infrastructure. This would provide secure command-and-control and data services from the first day of deployment, before a force’s full communications infrastructure arrived.
A second examined how connections could switch between radio frequencies, satellite services and troposcatter links in jammed environments. The options included 5G direct-to-device satellite communications.
“Communications have become the invisible battlefield of modern defence. The ability to protect the flow of information can determine how quickly forces understand what is happening and act accordingly,” said Ingmārs Pūķis, vice president and management board member at LMT.
The third area of work explored using 5G infrastructure to passively detect objects moving through its coverage, particularly in urban areas with dense tower networks. NATO designed the use cases around scenarios below the Article 5 threshold, including drone intrusions and undersea cable incidents in the Baltic Sea.
“The fact that the DiBaX experiment is taking place in Latvia for the fifth consecutive year demonstrates our ability to provide an environment for testing and refining the latest defence technologies under various conditions,” said Latvian Defence Minister Raivis Melnis. “This experience allows us not only to test innovative digital solutions in an environment that closely resembles realistic operational conditions, but also to strengthen cooperation with NATO Allies and promote technological interoperability.”
NATO’s stated objective was to move beyond demonstrations and examine how the capabilities could be adopted within military and civilian structures. Its DIANA innovation accelerator, Communications and Information Agency and CIS Group were among the organisations involved.
Two parallel efforts examined layered counter-drone defence and faster decision-making. The Layered Counter-UAS Initiative assessed how sensors and effectors could work together, while Next Generation Targeting explored AI-enabled decision support and data aggregation.
The programme concluded with NATO FUSE on 29–30 October, combining discussions and industry engagement with live field experimentation. During the event, European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis announced pilot European Drone Technology Hubs in Latvia and the Netherlands for 2027, to support drone and counter-drone development, testing and deployment in cooperation with NATO.
