NATO CCDCOE launches Crossed Swords 2026 in Tallinn with a new AI agent track and OpenAI Daybreak
The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) started the Crossed Swords 2026 exercise in Tallinn, Estonia, with the execution phase running through Friday. More than 250 participants from over 40 NATO and non-NATO countries are training to plan cyber operations and synchronise them with kinetic and special operations actions, with timing "measured in minutes, not hours". New this year is a dedicated track on AI agents, where participants build, deploy and assess agents and work alongside them. The environment runs on locally hosted AI and, for the first time, uses OpenAI's Daybreak cyber defense offering. More than 20 industry, academia and NGO organizations support the exercise, including Bitdefender, ESET, Elastic, Mandiant, OpenAI, Stamus Networks, TryHackMe and the ICRC. This is training news with no direct threat to defenders.
Detalhes técnicos
- Participants include military cyber operators, threat hunters and digital forensics experts, and the exercise is tied to a training event for special operations forces.
- The drill pairs national cyber forces with civilian partners so that critical infrastructure protection is built into their plans.
- Participation has roughly doubled since 2022 (about 120 people from 24 countries), and last year had 240 participants from about 40 nations.
- The larger CCDCOE Locked Shields exercise had more than 4,000 participants from 41 nations in 2026.
Linha do tempo
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NATO CCDCOE launches Crossed Swords 2026 in Tallinn with a new AI agent track and OpenAI Daybreak
ler a análise desta fonte ocultar
The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) started the Crossed Swords 2026 exercise in Tallinn, Estonia, with the execution phase running through Friday. More than 250 participants from over 40 NATO and non-NATO countries are training to plan cyber operations and synchronise them with kinetic and special operations actions, with timing "measured in minutes, not hours". New this year is a dedicated track on AI agents, where participants build, deploy and assess agents and work alongside them. The environment runs on locally hosted AI and, for the first time, uses OpenAI's Daybreak cyber defense offering. More than 20 industry, academia and NGO organizations support the exercise, including Bitdefender, ESET, Elastic, Mandiant, OpenAI, Stamus Networks, TryHackMe and the ICRC. This is training news with no direct threat to defenders.
Technical Details
- Participants include military cyber operators, threat hunters and digital forensics experts, and the exercise is tied to a training event for special operations forces.
- The drill pairs national cyber forces with civilian partners so that critical infrastructure protection is built into their plans.
- Participation has roughly doubled since 2022 (about 120 people from 24 countries), and last year had 240 participants from about 40 nations.
- The larger CCDCOE Locked Shields exercise had more than 4,000 participants from 41 nations in 2026.