► Leonardo Advances with Team CATALYST to Sprint 3 of NATO’s Next Generation Modelling and Simulation Programme

23 October, 2026 – Leonardo will continue to advance with team CATALYST to Sprint 3 of NATO Allied Command Transformation’s Agile Procurement Process for the Next Generation Modelling and Simulation Programme.Team CATALYST’s members bring broad experience delivering large-scale distributed synthetic environments and simulation, wargaming and command-and-control capabilities fielded across Alliance nations. The decision allows Leonardo and Team CATALYST to participate in the next stage of the competitive evaluation process.

Alliance readiness depends on nations being able to train, plan and make decisions together. Continuing to Sprint 3 is a key result for Leonardo. Through OCEAN, Leonardo provide a cloud-based platform for the management and orchestration of virtual and hybrid environments, implementing the Model and Simulation as a Service paradigm on a private cloud infrastructure. Together with the Team CATALYST, Leonardo look forward to demonstrating how these proven capabilities can help the Alliance train, plan, wargame, and analyze collaboratively in a secure, open, and adaptable synthetic environment.

NexGen M&S is a core enabler of NATO’s digital transformation and Multi-Domain Operations agenda, modernizing how the Alliance trains, plans, wargames and conducts operational analysis. The program is designed to deliver a true next-generation common synthetic environment for the Alliance: persistent, data-centric and supporting four applications spanning training, wargaming, operational planning and operational analysis across all warfighting domains.

Team CATALYST members collectively hold the security credentials, NATO-nation presence, and proven expertise required for this strategic program. The team’s approach pairs proven, operational capabilities in defense simulation, wargaming, cyber and enterprise IT with an open, adaptable framework: solutions built by the Alliance, for the Alliance. Team CATALYST brings together six companies from across the Alliance nations:

• By Light (USA/UK) leads the team as chief systems integrator with data architecture, cyber and distributed simulation expertise and brings its high-scale, interoperable simulation data fabric. 


• Leonardo (Italy) provides advanced simulation distribution technologies via OCEAN software and training support and simulation distribution expertise.


• ETE Technology (Türkiye) provides a multi-domain synthetic environment simulation engine, and highly advanced simulation and data support technologies (hymots® and etecube®).


• Thales (France/UK) brings NATO network accreditation expertise, architecture development, Data and AI capabilities and network security.


• Horizon Strategies (USA) and Liberty Business Associates (USA) provide subject-matter experts across the NATO support spectrum of senior professionals, military experts and technical advisors.

As the evaluation progresses through Sprint 3, Team CATALYST remains focused on demonstrating a secure, highly scalable synthetic environment. The team is committed to equipping NATO commanders with the critical decision advantage required to anticipate and outpace tomorrow’s multi-domain threats.

About Team CATALYST

Team CATALYST is a multinational industry team led by By Light Professional IT Services LLC and comprising By Light, ETE Technology, Thales, Leonardo, Horizon Strategies, and Liberty Business Associates. The team brings together expertise in modeling and simulation, wargaming, command and control, data architecture, secure systems integration and operational advisory support.

Led by By Light, one of five bidders continuing to Sprint 3 of NATO Allied Command Transformation’s competitive Agile Procurement Process for the Next Generation Modelling and Simulation Programme, Team CATALYST is proposing an open, adaptable and data-centric approach intended to connect NATO and national capabilities in support of coalition training, planning, wargaming and operational analysis.