Cyber News / Article / NATO’s Crossed Swords Exercise Brings AI Agents Into Cyber Operations Training
NATO’s Crossed Swords Exercise Brings AI Agents Into Cyber Operations Training
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The NATO CCDCOE exercise in Estonia introduces AI agents and OpenAI Daybreak into joint cyber and kinetic operations training.
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The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) kicked off Crossed Swords 2026 in Tallinn, Estonia, on Monday, with the exercise’s execution phase set to run through Friday.More than 250 people from over 40 countries, both NATO members and non-members, are practicing how to plan cyber operations and time them with kinetic military action.Participants come from national cyber forces and the units supporting them, including military cyber operators, threat hunters, and digital forensics experts. At the command level, the drill sharpens how staff direct both offensive and defensive cyber assets, while hands-on specialists hone their tactical skills. The cyber exercise is also tied into a training event for special operations forces.“The core operational challenge we are testing is synchronisation. Cyber effects must hit at the right moment to support a kinetic or special operations action – not in parallel, but in sequence, with timing measured in minutes, not hours. This year, that gets harder, because AI is now in the loop on both sides,” said Crossed Swords 2026 Exercise Director Jozef Kostelansky.New this year is a dedicated track on AI agents, in which participants build, deploy and assess agents and operate side by side with them. The exercise environment runs on locally hosted AI and, in a first for Crossed Swords, also usesOpenAI’s Daybreakcyber defense offering.“By introducing AI agents into the operational workflow, Crossed Swords 2026 is directly addressing one of the most significant shifts in the modern cyber threat landscape. We are training our participants to harness the power of AI while maintaining the critical human oversight required for complex, multi-domain mission success,” Kostelansky said.Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.The drill also pairs national cyber forces with civilian partners so that critical infrastructure protection is built into their plans. Over 20 organizations from industry, academia and the NGO sector support the event with know-how, systems to target and specialized tooling. Among them are Bitdefender, ESET, Elastic, Mandiant, OpenAI, Stamus Networks, TryHackMe, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).Crossed Swords traces its roots to a 2014 red teaming workshop and has since expanded to include command-level training and combined cyber and kinetic operations. Participation has roughly doubled since 2022, when around 120 people from 24 countries took part, and last year’s edition had 240 participants from about 40 nations.The CCDCOE’s largerLocked Shields exerciseinvolved more than 4,000 participants from 41 nations in 2026.Related:Sevii Targets AI-Speed Attacks With Preemptive Autonomous DefenseRelated:Security Awareness Training Isn’t Dead, but It Needs a RethinkRelated:Over 370 Organizations Take Part in GridEx VIII Grid Security Exercise
More than 250 people from over 40 countries, both NATO members and non-members, are practicing how to plan cyber operations and time them with kinetic military action.Participants come from national cyber forces and the units supporting them, including military cyber operators, threat hunters, and digital forensics experts. At the command level, the drill sharpens how staff direct both offensive and defensive cyber assets, while hands-on specialists hone their tactical skills. The cyber exercise is also tied into a training event for special operations forces.“The core operational challenge we are testing is synchronisation. Cyber effects must hit at the right moment to support a kinetic or special operations action – not in parallel, but in sequence, with timing measured in minutes, not hours. This year, that gets harder, because AI is now in the loop on both sides,” said Crossed Swords 2026 Exercise Director Jozef Kostelansky.New this year is a dedicated track on AI agents, in which participants build, deploy and assess agents and operate side by side with them. The exercise environment runs on locally hosted AI and, in a first for Crossed Swords, also usesOpenAI’s Daybreakcyber defense offering.“By introducing AI agents into the operational workflow, Crossed Swords 2026 is directly addressing one of the most significant shifts in the modern cyber threat landscape. We are training our participants to harness the power of AI while maintaining the critical human oversight required for complex, multi-domain mission success,” Kostelansky said.Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.The drill also pairs national cyber forces with civilian partners so that critical infrastructure protection is built into their plans. Over 20 organizations from industry, academia and the NGO sector support the event with know-how, systems to target and specialized tooling. Among them are Bitdefender, ESET, Elastic, Mandiant, OpenAI, Stamus Networks, TryHackMe, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).Crossed Swords traces its roots to a 2014 red teaming workshop and has since expanded to include command-level training and combined cyber and kinetic operations. Participation has roughly doubled since 2022, when around 120 people from 24 countries took part, and last year’s edition had 240 participants from about 40 nations.The CCDCOE’s largerLocked Shields exerciseinvolved more than 4,000 participants from 41 nations in 2026.Related:Sevii Targets AI-Speed Attacks With Preemptive Autonomous DefenseRelated:Security Awareness Training Isn’t Dead, but It Needs a RethinkRelated:Over 370 Organizations Take Part in GridEx VIII Grid Security Exercise
Participants come from national cyber forces and the units supporting them, including military cyber operators, threat hunters, and digital forensics experts. At the command level, the drill sharpens how staff direct both offensive and defensive cyber assets, while hands-on specialists hone their tactical skills. The cyber exercise is also tied into a training event for special operations forces.“The core operational challenge we are testing is synchronisation. Cyber effects must hit at the right moment to support a kinetic or special operations action – not in parallel, but in sequence, with timing measured in minutes, not hours. This year, that gets harder, because AI is now in the loop on both sides,” said Crossed Swords 2026 Exercise Director Jozef Kostelansky.New this year is a dedicated track on AI agents, in which participants build, deploy and assess agents and operate side by side with them. The exercise environment runs on locally hosted AI and, in a first for Crossed Swords, also usesOpenAI’s Daybreakcyber defense offering.“By introducing AI agents into the operational workflow, Crossed Swords 2026 is directly addressing one of the most significant shifts in the modern cyber threat landscape. We are training our participants to harness the power of AI while maintaining the critical human oversight required for complex, multi-domain mission success,” Kostelansky said.Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.The drill also pairs national cyber forces with civilian partners so that critical infrastructure protection is built into their plans. Over 20 organizations from industry, academia and the NGO sector support the event with know-how, systems to target and specialized tooling. Among them are Bitdefender, ESET, Elastic, Mandiant, OpenAI, Stamus Networks, TryHackMe, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).Crossed Swords traces its roots to a 2014 red teaming workshop and has since expanded to include command-level training and combined cyber and kinetic operations. Participation has roughly doubled since 2022, when around 120 people from 24 countries took part, and last year’s edition had 240 participants from about 40 nations.The CCDCOE’s largerLocked Shields exerciseinvolved more than 4,000 participants from 41 nations in 2026.Related:Sevii Targets AI-Speed Attacks With Preemptive Autonomous DefenseRelated:Security Awareness Training Isn’t Dead, but It Needs a RethinkRelated:Over 370 Organizations Take Part in GridEx VIII Grid Security Exercise
“The core operational challenge we are testing is synchronisation. Cyber effects must hit at the right moment to support a kinetic or special operations action – not in parallel, but in sequence, with timing measured in minutes, not hours. This year, that gets harder, because AI is now in the loop on both sides,” said Crossed Swords 2026 Exercise Director Jozef Kostelansky.New this year is a dedicated track on AI agents, in which participants build, deploy and assess agents and operate side by side with them. The exercise environment runs on locally hosted AI and, in a first for Crossed Swords, also usesOpenAI’s Daybreakcyber defense offering.“By introducing AI agents into the operational workflow, Crossed Swords 2026 is directly addressing one of the most significant shifts in the modern cyber threat landscape. We are training our participants to harness the power of AI while maintaining the critical human oversight required for complex, multi-domain mission success,” Kostelansky said.Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.The drill also pairs national cyber forces with civilian partners so that critical infrastructure protection is built into their plans. Over 20 organizations from industry, academia and the NGO sector support the event with know-how, systems to target and specialized tooling. Among them are Bitdefender, ESET, Elastic, Mandiant, OpenAI, Stamus Networks, TryHackMe, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).Crossed Swords traces its roots to a 2014 red teaming workshop and has since expanded to include command-level training and combined cyber and kinetic operations. Participation has roughly doubled since 2022, when around 120 people from 24 countries took part, and last year’s edition had 240 participants from about 40 nations.The CCDCOE’s largerLocked Shields exerciseinvolved more than 4,000 participants from 41 nations in 2026.Related:Sevii Targets AI-Speed Attacks With Preemptive Autonomous DefenseRelated:Security Awareness Training Isn’t Dead, but It Needs a RethinkRelated:Over 370 Organizations Take Part in GridEx VIII Grid Security Exercise
New this year is a dedicated track on AI agents, in which participants build, deploy and assess agents and operate side by side with them. The exercise environment runs on locally hosted AI and, in a first for Crossed Swords, also usesOpenAI’s Daybreakcyber defense offering.“By introducing AI agents into the operational workflow, Crossed Swords 2026 is directly addressing one of the most significant shifts in the modern cyber threat landscape. We are training our participants to harness the power of AI while maintaining the critical human oversight required for complex, multi-domain mission success,” Kostelansky said.Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.The drill also pairs national cyber forces with civilian partners so that critical infrastructure protection is built into their plans. Over 20 organizations from industry, academia and the NGO sector support the event with know-how, systems to target and specialized tooling. Among them are Bitdefender, ESET, Elastic, Mandiant, OpenAI, Stamus Networks, TryHackMe, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).Crossed Swords traces its roots to a 2014 red teaming workshop and has since expanded to include command-level training and combined cyber and kinetic operations. Participation has roughly doubled since 2022, when around 120 people from 24 countries took part, and last year’s edition had 240 participants from about 40 nations.The CCDCOE’s largerLocked Shields exerciseinvolved more than 4,000 participants from 41 nations in 2026.Related:Sevii Targets AI-Speed Attacks With Preemptive Autonomous DefenseRelated:Security Awareness Training Isn’t Dead, but It Needs a RethinkRelated:Over 370 Organizations Take Part in GridEx VIII Grid Security Exercise
“By introducing AI agents into the operational workflow, Crossed Swords 2026 is directly addressing one of the most significant shifts in the modern cyber threat landscape. We are training our participants to harness the power of AI while maintaining the critical human oversight required for complex, multi-domain mission success,” Kostelansky said.Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.The drill also pairs national cyber forces with civilian partners so that critical infrastructure protection is built into their plans. Over 20 organizations from industry, academia and the NGO sector support the event with know-how, systems to target and specialized tooling. Among them are Bitdefender, ESET, Elastic, Mandiant, OpenAI, Stamus Networks, TryHackMe, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).Crossed Swords traces its roots to a 2014 red teaming workshop and has since expanded to include command-level training and combined cyber and kinetic operations. Participation has roughly doubled since 2022, when around 120 people from 24 countries took part, and last year’s edition had 240 participants from about 40 nations.The CCDCOE’s largerLocked Shields exerciseinvolved more than 4,000 participants from 41 nations in 2026.Related:Sevii Targets AI-Speed Attacks With Preemptive Autonomous DefenseRelated:Security Awareness Training Isn’t Dead, but It Needs a RethinkRelated:Over 370 Organizations Take Part in GridEx VIII Grid Security Exercise
The drill also pairs national cyber forces with civilian partners so that critical infrastructure protection is built into their plans. Over 20 organizations from industry, academia and the NGO sector support the event with know-how, systems to target and specialized tooling. Among them are Bitdefender, ESET, Elastic, Mandiant, OpenAI, Stamus Networks, TryHackMe, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).Crossed Swords traces its roots to a 2014 red teaming workshop and has since expanded to include command-level training and combined cyber and kinetic operations. Participation has roughly doubled since 2022, when around 120 people from 24 countries took part, and last year’s edition had 240 participants from about 40 nations.The CCDCOE’s largerLocked Shields exerciseinvolved more than 4,000 participants from 41 nations in 2026.Related:Sevii Targets AI-Speed Attacks With Preemptive Autonomous DefenseRelated:Security Awareness Training Isn’t Dead, but It Needs a RethinkRelated:Over 370 Organizations Take Part in GridEx VIII Grid Security Exercise
Crossed Swords traces its roots to a 2014 red teaming workshop and has since expanded to include command-level training and combined cyber and kinetic operations. Participation has roughly doubled since 2022, when around 120 people from 24 countries took part, and last year’s edition had 240 participants from about 40 nations.The CCDCOE’s largerLocked Shields exerciseinvolved more than 4,000 participants from 41 nations in 2026.Related:Sevii Targets AI-Speed Attacks With Preemptive Autonomous DefenseRelated:Security Awareness Training Isn’t Dead, but It Needs a RethinkRelated:Over 370 Organizations Take Part in GridEx VIII Grid Security Exercise
The CCDCOE’s largerLocked Shields exerciseinvolved more than 4,000 participants from 41 nations in 2026.Related:Sevii Targets AI-Speed Attacks With Preemptive Autonomous DefenseRelated:Security Awareness Training Isn’t Dead, but It Needs a RethinkRelated:Over 370 Organizations Take Part in GridEx VIII Grid Security Exercise
Related:Sevii Targets AI-Speed Attacks With Preemptive Autonomous DefenseRelated:Security Awareness Training Isn’t Dead, but It Needs a RethinkRelated:Over 370 Organizations Take Part in GridEx VIII Grid Security Exercise
Related:Security Awareness Training Isn’t Dead, but It Needs a RethinkRelated:Over 370 Organizations Take Part in GridEx VIII Grid Security Exercise
Related:Over 370 Organizations Take Part in GridEx VIII Grid Security Exercise
Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is senior managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher before starting a career in journalism in 2011. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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