BruhnBruhn Innovation selected for the NATO DIANA 2026 Challenge Programme Cohort, under the Resilient Space Operations challenge area.
In December 2025, BruhnBruhn Innovation was selected as one of 150 companies joining the NATO DIANA 2026 Challenge Programme Cohort. The selection was made from a record 3,680 applications across all 32 NATO nations, making it the most competitive cohort in DIANA’s history.
BBI was selected under the Resilient Space Operations challenge area, with Dacreo apto as the qualifying technology.
What DIANA is and why it matters
DIANA exists to harness the opportunities presented by emerging and disruptive technologies, boosting NATO’s competitive edge in collective defence and security. It is NATO’s primary mechanism for moving deep technology from innovation to operational deployment, designed specifically to shorten the path from concept to the hands of Allied operators.
DIANA’s mission is to find the most innovative companies, help them advance their solutions and grow their business, and get the technologies needed into the hands of NATO operators. The programme operates across a network of 16 accelerator sites and more than 200 test centres spanning all 32 NATO nations, giving selected companies access to real-world validation, defence procurement pathways, and operational end-users at Alliance scale.
Through a cross-Alliance pool of technology innovators, DIANA aims to establish a dual-use technology pipeline to meet NATO’s varied and increasingly complex defence needs. The 2026 challenges span ten critical areas including resilient space operations, advanced communications, autonomy, and contested electromagnetic environments, all reflecting the strategic priorities identified by Allied nations.
A Cloud-Native Leap for Space Missions
Space is no longer simply an enabler for defence. It is a contested operational domain. Future Allied missions require satellites that can execute onboard AI, update their software in orbit, operate autonomously during communication blackouts, and interoperate across national and commercial systems using open standards. Traditional spacecraft architectures, tightly coupled, slow to update, and difficult to secure, cannot meet these demands.
Dacreo apto was built for exactly this environment. It is a Kubernetes-compatible spacestack that brings cloud-native operations to orbit, enabling mission teams to deploy, update, and recover containerised applications using standard GitOps pipelines. It supports real-time onboard AI and ML analytics, massive downlink reduction through selective data delivery, distributed autonomy across proliferated constellations, and resilient operations through our patent-pending fault monitoring method.
The architecture aligns directly with what NATO has identified as requirements for future space systems: modular and open standards, zero-trust update mechanisms, and Kubernetes-based service orchestration that allows Allied operators and application developers to build once and deploy everywhere.
Why Resilient Space Operations Matter
Space has become both a critical enabler and an active domain of competition. Space systems underpin the communications, navigation, early warning, and data services that modern societies and modern militaries depend on. For NATO, space is directly linked to collective defence, crisis response, operational effectiveness, and societal resilience.
Adversaries are already challenging NATO’s freedom of action. Russia conducted a destructive anti-satellite test in 2021 and is suspected of developing space-based nuclear capabilities. China has ambitions to establish a permanent lunar base by 2035 and to surpass US space power by 2045. The warning from NATO’s own senior leadership is direct: we must take concrete steps now to deter and defend in space, or risk losing access and freedom to operate there within the next decade.
The operational implication is straightforward: disruption and coercion can begin long before traditional military activity is visible, online and in orbit, before the first aircraft launches or missile fires.
Allied Command Transformation has responded by building a comprehensive Space Domain Vision anchored in three priorities: integrating space into Multi-Domain Operations, strengthening and sustaining resilient space capabilities, and ensuring operational readiness in the face of emerging threats.
A central shift in that vision is architectural. NATO is treating space as both a supporting domain and a supported domain, while strengthening resilience across the full architecture that makes space services work, from satellites in orbit to ground infrastructure and data networks. This requires shared awareness, dependable operational support, and the ability to coordinate Alliance action quickly when conditions change.
NATO’s Commercial Space Strategy, endorsed by Allied Defence Ministers in February 2025, marks a decisive inflection point in how NATO works with commercial providers, integrating their rapid innovation cycles and capabilities to reinforce the Alliance’s deterrence and defence posture.
The strategic logic is clear: no single nation or Alliance entity can match the agility and scale of the commercial space sector, and traditional government acquisition cycles cannot keep pace with the speed at which threats evolve.
This is precisely the gap Dacreo apto is designed to close. The PWSA architecture pursued by the US Space Development Agency, the onboard AI and inter-satellite optical communications mandated by Japan’s Ministry of Defense Space Domain Defense Guidelines, and ACT’s own requirements for Multi-Domain Operations all point to the same need: space systems that can be updated rapidly, operate autonomously during contact blackouts, process data in orbit rather than waiting for a ground pass, and interoperate across national and commercial nodes using open standards.
Dacreo apto addresses all of these requirements at the platform level. It brings the same DevSecOps workflows, containerised services, and open Kubernetes interfaces that underpin terrestrial cloud infrastructure into the orbital environment, making it possible for Allied operators to build applications once and deploy them across compatible nodes regardless of which nation built the spacecraft.
What the DIANA programme delivers for BBI
By directly engaging with investors and military end-users, and through access to real-world operational exercises, innovators gain critical insights that help refine and scale their solutions.
Over the programme period, BBI will work with DIANA’s accelerator network, test centres, and more than 600 mentors with defence, technological, and commercial expertise. The programme provides contractual funding for core development, access to NATO test infrastructure for validation against operational requirements, and a direct pathway to technology adoption across Allied nations through DIANA’s Rapid Adoption Service.
For BBI, DIANA represents the opportunity to validate Dacreo apto against real Allied operational requirements, deepen interoperability with the Alliance’s existing and emerging space infrastructure, and demonstrate how a cloud-native spacestack can serve as the software foundation for the resilient, software-defined, multi-orbit space architectures that ACT’s Space Domain Vision demands. The NATO Space Centre of Excellence is operational since 2026 and will enhance the Alliance’s ability to develop and employ space expertise, providing critical support to NATO’s goal of being a Multi-Domain Operations-enabled Alliance by 2030. BBI’s participation in the DIANA programme positions Dacreo apto directly within that timeline and within that goal.
A Shared Vision: Cloud Everywhere
We believe space is becoming the next compute environment—one that must seamlessly integrate with terrestrial cloud, tactical edge systems, and secure military networks. Dacreo apto allows mission designers, defence users, and commercial satellite operators to:
- Build and deploy new applications in days, not years
- Move intelligence instead of raw data
- Strengthen resilience through distributed autonomy
- Harness interoperable, open-standard architectures
Joining DIANA’s 2026 cohort allows us to take this vision and accelerate it into operational reality—together with Allies, industry partners, and NATO’s innovation ecosystem. Read more.
Looking Ahead
We are deeply honoured to join this cohort and eager to collaborate with peers across the Alliance. The next six months will be a period of intense development, testing, and learning—but also of building lasting partnerships that can shape the future of secure, cloud-native space operations.
Cloud Everywhere begins now.
