ATHEA, a joint venture between Atos and Thales, was awarded phase 3 of the project “ARTEMIS.IA” (Architecture for Processing and Massive Exploitation of Multi-Source Information and Artificial Intelligence) by the Armament General Directorate (Direction Générale de l’Armement). This project aims to offer scalable capabilities for massive data processing and artificial intelligence (AI) that meet the different business needs of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces. Designed 100% in France, ATHEA's platform will enable the Ministry of the Armed Forces to develop new AI applications based on the exploitation of sensitive data, for various use cases.
Phase 1 of the project was about creating a proof of concept; phase 2 consisted of the implementation and evaluation of demonstrations, in which the platform was applied to specific use cases. This new phase of the ARTEMIS.IA project, managed by the Digital Defense Agency (Agence du Numérique de Défense), includes the scaling up and the industrialization of the platform delivered in the previous phase, and which is already being used by some departments.
In the future, ATHEA's solution will enable the Ministry of the Armed Forces to develop new AI applications within its various systems, while bringing together decompartmentalization and controlled information sharing. The potential fields of application are numerous and relate to all areas that handle large volumes of data and for which sovereignty and security are key: intelligence, logistics, cybersecurity, and health for example. A development and integration kit, open to the industrial and academic world, will also make it possible to create easily integrated applications and accelerate the innovation cycle.
The June 24, 2022 notification is the culmination of the work of the ATHEA teams, from both Atos and Thales, as well as the entire Big Data ecosystem of the industrial and technological defense base. Around 100 experts have already been working together on the optimization and industrialization phase of the program for over a year.
"This first major contract illustrates the confidence that the French Defense Procurement Agency and the armed forces have in ATHEA's teams to develop a high-level technological solution, specifically adapted to the defense world," said Philippe Gasc, President of ATHEA. "Data exploitation represents a major challenge to maintain the operational superiority of the armed forces. We are proud to develop a sovereign solution that will enable France to act autonomously in the areas of intelligence, operations command and in the digital space."
Launched in May 2021, ATHEA is supported by an ecosystem of large industrial and digital companies – including Capgemini, Sopra Steria Group and Airbus Defense & Space – but also ETIs, SMEs, startups, scale-ups, and research organizations specialized in massive data processing and AI.
