BAE Systems to Help Defend Military AI from Cyber Attacks

DARPA awards $3.9 million contract to develop counter-AI techniques and tools to assess vulnerabilities.

Published on Feb. 18, 2026

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U.S. military researchers have awarded a $3.9 million contract to BAE Systems to develop techniques, tools, and technical competency to assess the vulnerabilities of military artificial intelligence (AI) systems to cyber attacks, data poisoning, and other threats. The Securing Artificial Intelligence for Battlefield Effective Robustness (SABER) project aims to rectify the lack of ways to assess the security risks of AI-enabled battlefield systems.

Why it matters

As AI technology becomes more integrated into U.S. military systems, there are growing concerns about the potential vulnerabilities of these AI-enabled systems to adversarial attacks. Assessing and addressing these vulnerabilities is crucial to ensuring the security and effectiveness of AI on the battlefield.

The details

Under the SABER project, BAE Systems engineers will develop physical, adversarial AI, cybersecurity, and electronic warfare techniques to perform vulnerability assessments on AI-enabled autonomous ground and aerial systems that could be deployed within the next one to three years. DARPA experts want BAE Systems to identify potential vulnerabilities, including data poisoning, physically constrained adversarial patches, and model stealing attacks.

  • The SABER contract was awarded to BAE Systems in February 2026.

The players

BAE Systems

An American multinational defense, security, and aerospace company that will develop counter-AI techniques and tools to assess the vulnerabilities of military AI systems.

DARPA

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a U.S. government agency that awarded the $3.9 million SABER contract to BAE Systems to address the lack of ways to assess the security risks of AI-enabled battlefield systems.

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What’s next

DARPA may award additional SABER contracts in the future to further develop counter-AI techniques and tools to assess the vulnerabilities of military AI systems.

The takeaway

The SABER project highlights the growing importance of securing military AI systems against cyber threats and other vulnerabilities as the technology becomes more integrated into U.S. defense capabilities. Proactive measures to assess and address these risks are crucial to ensuring the safety and effectiveness of AI on the battlefield.