Executive Summary
Establish dedicated defense AI research center: 50 researchers (25 PhD-level, 25 engineers) at Kaunas University of Technology partnership. Focus areas: target recognition (vehicles, equipment, camouflage), autonomous navigation (GPS-denied, SLAM), decision support (fire control, logistics), and predictive maintenance. Deliver 15+ operational AI capabilities annually. Create military-specific training datasets. Annual budget: €6M supporting 50 researchers plus computing infrastructure.
In short: 50-researcher AI center operational; 15+ AI capabilities deployed to military annually; Military-specific training datasets (100K+ labeled images)
The Problem
AI is deciding battles—Ukrainian Palantir-assisted targeting achieves 3x artillery effectiveness. Ukrainian Delta processes thousands of targets daily. Autonomous drones navigate GPS-denied environments. Lithuania has strong AI talent (Oxylabs, Vinted AI teams) but zero defense-focused AI research. Military-specific AI requires specialized training data, real-time constraints, and adversarial robustness that civilian AI labs don't address.