On 29 April 2026, the Federated Advanced Cyber-Physical Test Range (FACT) project held its fifth End-User Conference in Athens, Greece, hosted by consortium partner, Space Hellas. The event marked a key milestone for the consortium as it transitions into the qualification phase of the project.
Funded under the European Defence Fund and coordinated by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, FACT is a cutting-edge initiative dedicated to advancing cybersecurity innovation and addressing critical challenges within the European defence ecosystem. The project will deliver a new European capability for cyber-physical testing and verification of equipment.
From theoretical design to realised prototype
The conference provided an important platform for exchange between the consortium and the military end users, reflecting a core principle of the FACT project: continuous engagement through a systematic feedback loop approach. By working closely with supporting Ministries of Defence (MoDs) across Europe, the consortium actively ensures that its development remains firmly aligned with operational requirements.
As the project approaches its final stages, this dialogue is more critical than ever, in order to stabilise the end-of-project demonstration’s requirements and business model considerations.
The consortium welcomed representatives from nine EU Member States and Norway, an all-time record attendance, underlining the strong involvement of end users and the relevance of the project’s outcomes at the European level.
« We welcome these conferences which, one edition after the other, have helped us consolidate a clearer and more practical vision for as to how FACT could be deployed and deliver added value for our Armed Forces. More generally, they also highlight how important and indispensable it is for us to embrace cyber from an European perspective », stated the Belgium MoD representative.
« FACT inserts very well into a much wider awareness raising cyber ecosystem, thanks to its ability to embrace testing from a system-of-system perspective », added another MoD representative present at the conference.
A key element that sets FACT apart is the integration of Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) testing as a core capability. By bringing real hardware directly into the test loop, the project enables high-fidelity mission validation and ensures that solutions are not only theoretically sound but operationally ready for deployment in complex, real-world defence scenarios.
During the conference, partners presented the latest progress of the project, including developments and refinements made to its use cases and prototype. These exchanges enabled the consortium to further validate alignment with MoD expectations, particularly regarding security, interoperability, and the Initial Harmonised Defence Capability Requirements (IHDCR). At the same time, the discussions contributed to shaping the upcoming End-of-Project Demonstration by gathering targeted feedback on the prototype and its workflows.
A project selected by the European Defence Fund 2022
The European Commission has awarded €26.9 million over a three-year period to the FACT project led by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.
The European Defence Fund (EDF) is a financial instrument created by the European Union in 2017 as part of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The first call for proposals was published in 2021. FACT is one of the 41 projects selected for the 2022 EDF (out of 134 proposals submitted).