Two telecom operators, one Navy exercise and a shared goal: communications that work across borders when it matters. NOS and Telefónica have reached a strategic agreement to develop new defense and security solutions, after showing they could join their 5G technologies in a real operational setting at REPMUS.
Proof of concept at REPMUS
REPMUS is the Portuguese Navy’s exercise in robotics and autonomous vehicles, held in Troia with participants from NATO countries and more than 30 navies. There, NOS combined its 5G capabilities with Telefónica’s, showing interoperability between different telecom networks and its potential for demanding defense scenarios.
João Ricardo Moreira, director of Nos Comunicações, says this matters in the European context, where the new defense landscape needs digital infrastructure that works in a coordinated way across borders, with secure, resilient and interoperable communications. Javier López Gutiérrez, Director of Defense and Security at Telefónica Spain, says the deal strengthens European technological sovereignty and was possible thanks to the Spanish and Portuguese Navies, which provided a real environment for testing.
What the two will build together
Under this strategic agreement between telecom operators, the plan is to jointly develop advanced connectivity, secure communications and digital services for new defense scenarios.
The areas include:
- network interoperability
- secure communications
- edge computing
- artificial intelligence
- advanced 5G and new connectivity architectures
- integration with command and control systems and autonomous platforms
The aim, López Gutiérrez says, is solutions closer to the real needs of defense users in the EU and NATO.
NOS in the defense sector
This is another step for NOS in defense. The operator created Nos Security Technology to respond to strong investment and demand for defense solutions in Europe. Through it, NOS leads the HORUS project, funded with €3.68 million from the Recovery and Resilience Plan, which aims to build solutions that strengthen national resilience to hybrid threats, with completion scheduled for May 2028.
Through its innovation arm, NOS is also part of Neuroquad, a European consortium led by Multiverse Computing, funded by the European Defence Fund with around four million euros. The project helps military pilots make better decisions under stress and draws on neurotechnology, AI and quantum computing. If you follow IT industry news, defense is clearly becoming a bigger part of the telecom story, and technology events are where many of these partnerships first get shown.
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