Naval Group and Thales Launch cortAIx France to Advance Naval AI Capabilities

5 November 2026
Edited By: Haley McQueen

By acquiring a stake in cortAIx France alongside Thales in February 2026, Naval Group is turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to strengthen the capabilities of its naval customers and provide them with operational superiority, in line with its purpose: "We deliver power at sea."

Naval Group has taken a stake in cortAIx France, a Thales-founded AI company, to develop advanced naval combat applications. (Image credit: Naval Group)

Faced with faster and more complex threats (swarms of drones in all environments, hypersonic missiles, cyber threats, etc.), AI is becoming a strategic tool for accelerating and improving detection, analysis, and engagement. Naval Group’s acquisition of a stake in cortAIx, a company established in 2024 by Thales bringing together engineering and production engineering activities relating to AI applied to critical environments, reflects this conviction. Spread across five hubs, 800 specialists—mainly data scientists and AI developers—form the backbone of the organization. Their expertise is now being combined with that of Naval Group’s engineers within cortAIx France, with a view to accelerating the development of applications designed specifically for naval combat.

Priority Developments for Naval Defense

The Naval Group–Thales partnership seeks to develop use cases integrated into the products and services that Naval Group offers its customers. The aim is to pool expertise in order to scale up innovations for onboard systems. To achieve this, we are pooling not only the tools and developments we create, but also the results, to ensure we remain at the cutting edge of technology.

The momentum generated by cortAIx France drives four key areas of application identified as priorities for naval defense:

Support in action for quicker engagement

AI speeds up the fusion of data and the identification of objects detected by multiple sensors, to assess the threat and propose appropriate responses. In high-pressure situations, it reduces the operator’s cognitive load and helps prioritize their actions: a particularly valuable asset, especially for close-range protection.

Mission support, to better anticipate threats

One of the use cases currently being developed at cortAIx France involves the behavioral analysis of aircraft to identify any potentially hostile intentions within dense air traffic. As these methods and technological core assets are cross-disciplinary, they can be reused to analyze the behavior of ships and drones, including aerial drones.

Platform support, to push the boundaries of the vessel’s operational capabilities

Building on Naval Group’s long-standing research, AI makes it possible to predict a ship’s movements so that all its capabilities (aircraft landing, launching of boats, deployment of sonar) can be utilized in very rough seas.

Operational and maintenance support, to extend availability

AI helps with the execution of maintenance operations by identifying early warning signs before a fault occurs, assessing its impact, and guiding the operator towards the most appropriate corrective action in order to maintain the vessel’s operational availability.