Thales Seeks to Export HexaForce AI-Enabled C2 Platform to Gulf Nations

BEIRUT — French aerospace and defense giant Thales is promoting its new artificial intelligence-enabled command and control (C2) system, known as HexaForce, as a tailored solution for the Gulf region. A senior company executive stated that the platform is designed to meet regional operational needs while ensuring data sovereignty.

“We do believe that there is an operational need and a solution based on our open standard, being able to address the sovereignty for the countries. We do believe that this solution is already fit for purpose regarding the Gulf,” Thales Vice President for Multi-Domain Operations Patrick Moreau told Breaking Defense in an interview.

Moreau declined to speculate on specific negotiations with individual Middle Eastern clients. First unveiled on September 17, HexaForce is engineered to accelerate decision-making and secure a competitive edge at all command levels for NATO and allied nations.

“This solution is a data, AI-powered solution. We leverage the AI to develop quite fast, and there is agentic and LLM [large language model] inside this solution that could really allow the end users, for instance, to propose targeting solutions to the operator, meaning that it allows the operator to process a huge amount of data,” Moreau explained.

He noted that HexaForce operates on open-source data, enabling nations to bolster their sovereign capabilities. This architecture ensures that operational data remains within the country, guaranteeing complete sovereignty and allowing local adaptations to specific national requirements.

Thales emphasizes that the platform supports both strategic and tactical decision-making. Although it has not yet been deployed in active combat, HexaForce has been tested in military exercises, including the CWIX NATO exercise held in Poland in June. Live trials aim to pave the way for full-scale deployment, eventually scaling the system’s capacity to process up to 1,000 targets per day, up from 100.

Regarding potential co-production opportunities aligned with regional localization goals, Moreau highlighted the possibility of utilizing local capabilities. “Whenever we deploy it locally, we could rely on domestic capabilities of Thales and/or partners to develop AI-powered capabilities, which are much more sovereign and considered as ‘sovereign eyes only’ by the country,” he said.

Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, have increasingly emphasized local production and industrial localization in line with their national strategic mandates.

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