The Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten) and the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) have, together with academia and industry, inaugurated the new innovation and collaboration hub LRIX in Lund (southern Sweden). The initiative aims to develop faster working methods for the innovation and development of military command and control systems.
According to FMV, LRIX, Lund Rapid Innovation and eXploitation, represents a pilot project in which small and large companies will be able to work more closely with the Swedish Armed Forces and FMV to more rapidly identify needs, test solutions, and translate new technology into operational capability.
Behind the initiative are FMV, Swedish Armed Forces Cyber, the Army Staff, and the Southern Scanian Regiment P7, with support from the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), the Swedish Defence University (Försvarshögskolan), and Vinnova (Sweden's innovation agency). Ideon Science Park and the defence innovation platform Amyna serve as operator and collaboration platform.
"This initiative is a way of changing structures and working methods in order to better harness the innovative capacity of industry and academia. We believe in the concept and hope that this is the first of several nodes," says Rebecca Ihrfors, Head of the Command and Control Systems business area at FMV, in a press release.
According to Ideon Science Park and FMV, the initiative is built on connecting the defence sector with companies, startups, and academia through the innovation environments in Lund, Skåne (southern Sweden), and the Copenhagen region. A central element of the project is the connection to P7 in Revingehed (southern Sweden), where new solutions will be able to be tested in an operational environment based on real military needs. The pilot project is to be evaluated at the end of 2026.