The pace and diversity of modern warfare continue to drive demand for faster, more connected and more data-driven decision making.  While it can be tempting to carry on with what has worked in the past, ignoring these emerging trends can erode potential operational advantage and risk being outpaced by our adversaries.

Conflict in the 2020s has illustrated that mass effect is no longer measured solely in terms of the number of capital platforms or size of standing forces.  Mass of force is no longer wholly dependent on the size or capability of individual platforms, but also now increasingly on the synchronised, combined effect of many smaller, less capable elements. Events in Ukraine, Russia and elsewhere can demonstrate that size alone does not guarantee operational advantage. Larger forces can be hindered by disparate, isolated systems and limited information exchange. Smaller forces that are tightly integrated across multiple operating domains can gain the advantage through faster, more effective communication and information sharing. Deterrence, and often decisive effect, depends on maintaining coherence across multiple operating domains under contested conditions.

When always connected is the norm, network resilience is essential.

There has been a rapid increase in the number and diversity of sensor, decider and effector platforms offering timely and information-rich insights with ever finer levels of tactical granularity. The potential to improve situational awareness is unquestionable, though realising that potential is entirely dependent on ensuring that the right information flows are established and maintained. This, in turn, is dependent on agile and resilient network connectivity. Increased interoperability, and the ability to coordinate on scale and at an ever-faster pace, places a demand on allied defence to utilise and develop more agile and frictionless approaches to secure information exchange. The reality of modern warfare is such that communicating mission-critical data between networks of differing trust levels has transitioned from the exception to the norm.

Allies in the Eastern Flank Deterrence Line (EFDL) utilising multi-domain information exchange have shown the power of such technologies in practice, allowing for the execution of highly advantageous operations using low-cost, networked, autonomous systems to generate decisive combat overmatch and shift risk from human warfighters to attributable platforms. It has also enabled an effective technology-forward defence-in-depth approach, with unmanned vehicles ahead of the EFDL, put in place to defeat enemy 1st and 2nd echelons, providing powerful deterrence which relies far more on information technology than mass. Putting these results in plain terms: effective information advantage saves lives and discourages conflict.

The answer: multi-domain solutions

In his closing keynote speech at the RUSI Land Warfare Conference in 2026, the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, said that “The war in Ukraine is illustrating super clearly the need to integrate activity across multiple domains to strike a successful blow against the enemy. At a tactical level, the source of freedom of action of any army now lies in control of the air and dominance of the electromagnetic spectrum...NATO’s decisive advantage will come from the rapid integration of effects across all 5 [operating] domains.”

As experts in secure information exchange with over 30 years’ experience in providing solutions to allied defence, Nexor understands the operational demand for multi-domain architecture and offers services tailored to developing or otherwise integrating ideal solutions into our customers’ organisations.

Nexor have delivered multi-domain information exchange solutions to various allied defence organisations on numerous occasions, including to several UK MoD and NATO customers. Nexor is also at the forefront of the development of interoperability architectures such as the Single Information Environment (SInfoE) for Dstl, which works both to connect and enable vastly increased speeds between Sensors, Deciders and Effectors in the decision chain. This is achieved through the rapid and secure exchange of information between the domains and environments that have been incorporated into the SInfoE, the technology thus acting as a force amplifier on the efficacy of attached defence systems.

Where we are and where we’re going

While it is hard to argue against the power and potential of these emerging technologies, it is important to acknowledge that, although the multi-domain concept is well established in theory, it is still in its relative infancy in terms of real-world practice at scale and under less-than-optimal conditions. The implementation of resilient, combat-effective solutions requires ongoing research, development and innovation to maintain a decisive advantage. Investment into the continued improvement and integration of these emerging technologies will significantly boost the deterrence capability of defence, as information advantage enables allies to overcome mass differentials in tactically advantageous areas.

The cyber domain and the AI capabilities which operate within it are increasingly becoming the key terrain on which a decisive effect may hinge or pivot and to which every other domain is dependent, providing the scaffolding for an interoperable web of secure information exchange, enabling cross-domain operations at pace. Interoperable capability acts, in and of itself, as an effective deterrent in an age of information superiority, where battles can be won or lost not just through greater intelligence, but through the ability to exchange information with extreme agility, reliability and accuracy.