REG - Defence Holdings PLC - First AI Product Build in Information Operations

Defence HoldingsAnnouncement

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RNS Number : 9398Y  Defence Holdings PLC   11 September 2025

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

11 September 2025

London, UK

 

Defence Holdings PLC

("Defence Holdings" or the "Company")

Defence Technologies Announces First AI Product Build in Information
Operations: Project Ixian

Defence Holdings PLC (http://www.defenceplc.com) (LSE: ALRT), the UK's first
listed software-led defence company, is pleased to announce the launch of its
first sovereign AI product build, Project Ixian. Project Ixian is the first in
a growing portfolio of sovereign AI-enabled applications under Defence
Technologies and targets information operations, one of the most urgent and
contested domains in modern defence.

Information operations encompass the control, distortion, or denial of
information as a means to destabilise societies, undermine institutions, and
paralyse adversaries. They span disinformation, cyber activity, narrative
manipulation, and digital sabotage, and have been identified in the UK
Strategic Defence Review 2025 ("SDR25") as a critical threat vector requiring
urgent sovereign capability.

Project Ixian marks a commercially significant opportunity with long-term
deployment potential in the wider defence, national security, and private
sectors.

Development of the product has been carried out in collaboration with one of
the world's Magnificent 7 technology leaders. Whitespace engineers have worked
directly with the partner's engineering team to integrate AI-native cloud
infrastructure into Project Ixian, embedding hyperscale capability from
inception.

This collaboration gives Project Ixian sovereign-grade resilience and
scalability from day one, positioning Defence Technologies as one of the very
few emerging defence companies able to operate at the scale of the primes. By
building on infrastructure already relied upon by governments, telecoms, and
critical industries worldwide, the product is proven to perform at allied
scale.

Importantly, the product has not been developed in isolation. The build has
been shaped through workshops with frontline end-users in the UK military,
ensuring that its design directly reflects operational requirements. This
approach ensures true product-market fit, with capabilities aligned to the
challenges that matter most to those on the ground, not just those in planning
rooms.

 

Project Ixian will enter its first phase of value realisation in December,
marking a key milestone in its commercial rollout.

An Urgent, Present Threat

Recent operations show this is not a future challenge but a live and
escalating one. Campaigns such as Operation Doppelgänger, a Russian effort
impersonating European media outlets to spread disinformation, are already
destabilising UK and EU audiences. At the same time, Telegram-based networks
have been linked to sabotage operations in Britain and Europe, recruiting
individuals to conduct arson and attacks on critical infrastructure.

These hybrid tactics, which fuse digital disinformation with physical
disruption, highlight the urgent need for sovereign capabilities in
information operations. The UK Government has already acknowledged this
priority through the National Security Act 2023, the forthcoming Cyber &
Electromagnetic Command, the Cyber Resilience Bill, and the RESIST 2 Toolkit.
Project Ixian directly aligns with these initiatives, providing Defence
Holdings with a clear policy tailwind and a commercially significant
opportunity as government spending shifts towards sovereign digital
resilience.

Andy McCartney, Chief Technology Officer, Defence Holdings PLC, commented:

"Information is infrastructure, and it is under attack right now. Project
Ixian shows how Defence Technologies is moving from strategy to live delivery,
embedding sovereign capability in one of the most contested domains of modern
defence. Working alongside a Magnificent 7 hyperscale partner, we are ensuring
that the UK can detect and disrupt hostile campaigns with sovereign tools that
are resilient, scalable, and trusted at allied level. We're proud that Project
Ixian will be the first of our products to move into the field, proving our
ability to deliver capability where it matters most."

Further details of Project Ixian, alongside Defence Holdings' strategic white
paper on Information Operations, will be made available on the Company's
website at (http://www.defenceplc.com?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
www.defenceplc.com (http://www.defenceplc.com) .

 

 

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