James Appathurai, interim managing director, NATO DIANA. Photo: NATO

NATO is looking to make it easier for space startups in NATO nations to get their tech deployed in the field. James Appathurai, interim managing director of NATO DIANA, said at DSEI in London this week that NATO is trying to dramatically simplify engagement for startups with a new ‘front door’ for commercial space companies. The space front door is part of NATO’s Commercial Space Strategy, released this year.

“NATO previously had too many doors. The Space Front Door, it is a single front door for innovative companies,” Appathurai said.

DIANA is the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, an organisation established by NATO to find and accelerate dual-use innovation capacity across the Alliance. Appathurai’s job at NATO is to find cutting edge technologies from SMEs.

DIANA is moving into its third year and the accelerator has been effective at bringing in interest from startups. Every year, NATO will put out numerous challenges to the space community, articulating the problem and looking for solutions on how to solve. Appathurai gave one example of operating in a GPS-denied environment.

“We send out these challenges, and many companies apply. We had 3,700 companies apply to our latest set of challenges,” he said. “It is a six-month program where we test the technologies and work with the companies. We have access to accelerator sites. We take companies to our test centers. We bring them to our new ranges. Finland and Sweden are setting up a [test] range for next generation communications, for example.”

Appathurai says one of the key themes of NATO’s work is iteration, about testing technologies and products and giving companies help to adapt their tech if needed. While the ultimate goal for these companies is to generate business, working with NATO can have far reaching benefits.

“Companies that make through the DIANA process, you get a NATO badge. That will help a company if they show up a Defense Ministry. What we hear from companies it is hard to get through the Front Door. We are creating adoption pathways from concept to adoption. We want dual use companies,” says Appathurai. “My aim is to help address the needs of our Armed Forces. We are connecting the companies in DIANA to capital. We have vetted investors. So, we will connect companies to them as well as the NATO Innovation Fund. We support companies together — the ultimate aim is adoption.”

Appathurai said there are a number of measures of success, such as a defense contract, or a smaller company being integrated into a larger company. DIANA can also offer a door to wider commercialization, and support more rapid adoption of technology for younger companies.

Lessons from Ukraine were a theme of DSEI this week, and how quick Ukraine was to adapt technologies like satellite imagery and integrate it into its warfighting.

“We want enhanced access to innovation. We need operational integration. We need to embed commercial services directly into NATO operations. We want improved resilience,” Appathurai said. “The satellites in space we have are vulnerable. Russia and China are investing a lot in anti-satellite technologies. Cyber and kinetic attacks are very real. This is the era we are living in.”