Finland and Estonia have, together with the Finnish artificial intelligence company NestAI, signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the research and development of artificial intelligence for military applications. The cooperation will cover areas including autonomous systems, command support, and adaptive AI.
– Our goal is to build a strong ecosystem for artificial intelligence within the defence sector. We are investing in national AI capability for defence and strengthening international cooperation. Collaboration between companies and research actors is close. Defence is strengthened while new growth opportunities are created for companies, writes Finland's Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen on X.
According to a joint press release from the Finnish Defence Forces (Puolustusvoimat), the cooperation will establish a shared network for AI expertise between the Defence Forces' Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence and Estonia's Force Transformation Command. The memorandum of understanding contains no financial commitments, but is intended to create a framework for knowledge exchange, joint development, training, and technical cooperation.
The initial work will focus on research and development within learning and adaptive artificial intelligence, command support solutions, and autonomous and unmanned systems. The aim is to develop solutions that are interoperable with allied systems through open and modular architectures, without dependence on individual vendors.
– Last year we launched the Defence Forces' data and AI strategy. The memorandum of understanding that has now been drawn up is part of the ecosystem-building that the strategy requires, both nationally and internationally. Our goal is to bring in other countries as well, and the cooperation now being initiated with Estonia provides a good starting point, says Major General Sami Nurmi, Chief of Strategy of the Finnish Defence Forces.
According to the Estonian Defence Forces, the cooperation could in time be expanded to include the AI organisations, centres of excellence, and companies of additional countries within the defence sector.
– The memorandum of understanding creates a foundation for practical cooperation on artificial intelligence for military use. By combining operational understanding, technical expertise, and lessons learned from testing, we expect to be able to accelerate the responsible introduction of artificial intelligence in areas such as command, unmanned systems, and adaptive capabilities that support decision-making, says Major General Viktor Kalnitski, Deputy Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces.
NestAI, founded in 2025, develops AI platforms for unmanned systems and command systems, among other applications, and has previously an established cooperation with the Finnish Defence Forces on the development of its AI centre of excellence, as NDS has previously reported.
– European defence forces need AI systems that interoperate across national borders and continue to learn after deployment. That requires open, modular, and interoperable architectures where the development of capability remains in the hands of the nations using the systems, says Peter Sarlin, Chairman of the Board of NestAI.