A pioneering digital targeting web, called ASGARD, has been showcased this week, following successful trials by British soldiers deployed on NATO’s eastern flank. The project will enable soldiers to rapidly find and strike enemy targets at greater distances than ever before.
Following the Strategic Defence Review, the Army will deliver a tenfold increase in lethality over the next ten years by harnessing firepower, surveillance technology, autonomy, digital connectivity, and data – leading the way in NATO in its use of technology to change how it fights, improving speed and accuracy. ASGARD will exploit AI and novel communications networks, providing rapid targeting and decision-support to personnel.
The Ministry of Defence is committing funding for the next phase of ASGARD’s development. This will allow the Army to expedite its lethality and deepen its links with society through partnership with British industry, delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change by keeping the UK secure at home and strong abroad.
Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry, Rt Hon Maria Eagle MP said:
We are learning the lessons from Ukraine so our frontline personnel can strike further and faster and maintain advantage over our adversaries.
ASGARD exemplifies the vision of the Strategic Defence Review, with speed and world-class capability achieved by bringing together military, Government and industry professionals with a focus on rapid frontline delivery.
ASGARD forms part of the work to create a wider digital targeting web across the UK’s Armed Forces by 2027, backed by more than £1 billion in funding. It will better connect military weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions for targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster.
ASGARD was showcased this week to international allies and industry partners in London, with participants shown the capability in action, including its overwhelming effect on adversaries.
Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Roly Walker said:
Project ASGARD proves we can do things differently. It’s not just a pathfinder for transformation; it’s a transformation in how we find, fund, and fight with cutting-edge capabilities.
ASGARD helps double our lethality and exponentially reduces the time to see, decide, and strike. What took hours, now takes minutes. Today, the UK possesses a similar Recce-Strike system to the one used by Ukraine to maul Russian forces in the Donbas. That system now sits at the heart of our Forward Land Forces in Estonia.
We are particularly proud of the collaboration between tacticians and technicians, between Defence and Industry, and the support of and to small and medium enterprises and jobs across the UK.
Using a novel acquisition approach, ASGARD was first announced by the Defence Secretary in October 2024 and progressed at an unprecedented pace, with contracts awarded in January 2025 and a prototype capability deployed only four months later for NATO Exercise Hedgehog in Estonia. ASGARD’s capabilities were successfully tested, increasing the UK and NATO Armies’ lethality by improving targeting precision and significantly cutting decision-making time.
This quick turn-around was achieved through a collaboration between industry technicians and military tradecraft experts, bringing together a consortium of military, civil service and industry partners to deliver the best possible product in the shortest amount of time.
The Strategic Defence Review recommended a shift towards greater use of autonomy and Artificial Intelligence within the UK’s conventional forces, facilitated by a Digital Targeting Web. The next phase of ASGARD will deliver on this, focusing on enhancing the lethality at the Corps and Divisional levels as the Army’s contribution to the Defence Targeting Web. It will exploit the Digital Decision Accelerators from the Defence Commercial framework to harness the talents across a broader array of industry partners to improve core capability.
