UBITECH is pleased to announce its participation in IRONPLAN — Integrated Reconfigurable Operational Planning, Navigation, Communication, and Coordination — a newly launched Research Action funded by the European Defence Fund (EDF). The project officially kicked off on 17–18 February 2026 in Cyprus, hosted by the coordinating partner Cyprus Research and Innovation Center Ltd (CYRIC), bringing together a strong European consortium committed to reinforcing the EU’s strategic autonomy in defence technologies. Running from December 2025 to November 2028, IRONPLAN (GA Nr. 101224513) is a 36-month initiative that aims to empower the European Union with technological independence in the development of next-generation Command and Control (C2) systems. The project sets out to create the first ‘smart,’ transparent, and verifiable C2 system, seamlessly integrating robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) across all areas of military operations, while leveraging EU-funded technologies and developing new ones where needed.
At the heart of IRONPLAN lies a commitment to strengthening EU technological sovereignty through a comprehensive, EU-wide supply chain and cross-border partnerships. The proposed solution enhances decision-making, planning, execution, and communication through a suite of AI-driven tools — most notably the SPECTER task planner — as well as advanced GNSS-denied navigation techniques. Key technological pillars of the project include Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) in GNSS-denied environments, fail-safe communications infrastructure, and automated, verifiable decision-making processes with meaningful human oversight. By seamlessly augmenting existing C2 systems, IRONPLAN lays a robust foundation for future ‘smart’ C2 technologies adaptable across the EU and beyond.
Within the IRONPLAN consortium, UBITECH takes on a multi-faceted and technically demanding role that spans requirements engineering, platform development, and systems integration. Drawing on its deep expertise in advanced software engineering, UBITECH will lead the identification, documentation, and analysis of the project’s key requirements in strict accordance with ISO 29148, ensuring high-quality, traceable outcomes. This includes comprehensive functional and non-functional requirements gathering and analysis, stakeholder identification and analysis, and the development of a structured stakeholder communication plan to ensure that the resulting system addresses the needs of all relevant parties and operates effectively within defined technical and operational boundaries.
Beyond requirements engineering, UBITECH will develop all C2P (Command and Control Platform) components, capitalising on state-of-the-art open source tools and frameworks to deliver an end-to-end secure and robust information infrastructure. This infrastructure will facilitate information consolidation and provision to the technical components of the holistic IRONPLAN framework responsible for the system’s business intelligence, including its transparent and verifiable decision-making capabilities and real-time operational monitoring and evaluation. As a final and critical integration step, UBITECH will be responsible for integrating the IRONPLAN Task Planning system with the IRONPLAN Command and Control Platform, ensuring seamless interoperability across the project’s technical components.
UBITECH’s technical contributions to IRONPLAN are carried out by the company’s Big Data Engineering, Analytics & Science (DEA) Research Group, a highly specialised unit with proven experience in large-scale data engineering, AI-driven analytics, and the development of intelligent information systems for complex, mission-critical applications.
“IRONPLAN represents a significant opportunity to demonstrate how advanced data engineering and AI-driven decision-support tools can contribute to the next generation of European defence systems. Our team is committed to delivering a secure, verifiable, and operationally effective Command and Control Platform that will strengthen the EU’s strategic autonomy and set new standards for smart C2 technologies.”
— Dr. Kostas Perakis, Head of Big Data Engineering, Analytics & Science Research Group, UBITECH
With IRONPLAN, UBITECH reaffirms its commitment to European defence research and innovation, leveraging its technical capabilities to support the EU’s ambition for a more sovereign, resilient, and technologically advanced defence posture. The project adds to UBITECH’s growing portfolio of EDF-funded initiatives and underscores the company’s strategic focus on AI, autonomous systems, and secure information infrastructures in support of European security and defence objectives.
