What are the new Sovereign AI LLM platforms of Portugal Defence?
Defence News Europe - Here are the new Sovereign AI LLM platforms of Portugal Defence: AI Afonso developed for Portugal´s Army and AI Silicon Sailor for Portugal´s Navy:
Portugal´s Afonso AI LLM and Silicon Sailor AI LLM are part of the country´s Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in the Defence sector and the AI platforms were created in partnership with NOVA FCT in order to ensure digital sovereignty.
What is Portugal´s new Sovereign AI LLM platform Afonso developed for Portugal´s Army?
Portugal´s new Sovereign AI LLM platform Afonso developed for Portugal´s Army was launched in September 2026. It is the first AI intranet created for the Portuguese Armed Forces - Exército Português.
Portuguese Armed Forces´ AI Afonso was named after the first King of Portugal and operates on controlled information sources, keeping the data and processing within the Army's technological environment and allowing the development of specific functionalities.
AI Afonso will answer a set of questions to address the Army's needs in terms of documentation, processes, logistics, finance, and personnel in this first phase. The information collected will remain on the Afonso platform and will not circulate on the internet.
The AI solution developed for the Portuguese Armed Forces demonstrates the potential to create specialized assistants tailored to different usage contexts, based on specific information sources, while maintaining the necessary requirements for security, control, and sovereignty over the information.
What is Portugal´s new Sovereign AI LLM platform Silicon Sailor developed for Portugal´s Navy?
Portugal´s new Sovereign AI LLM platform Silicon Sailor developed for Portugal´s Navy was launched in July 2026. It was developed in partnership with NOVA FCT. While Portugal´s Navy LLM was developed based on Portugal´s open-source LLM Amália, AI Silicon Sailor works on infrastructure controlled by the Navy. Portugal´s Navy invested around one million euros to create the Silicon Sailor AI LLM.
Portugal´s AI Silicon Sailor was funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) through ARTE - the State Agency for Technological Reform, for a total investment cost of 910,000 euros.
Portugal´s Navy produces and uses large volumes of technical, operational, logistical, administrative, and scientific information and its new AI Silicon Sailor will support decision-making and increase productivity, while reducing the time needed to locate, analyze, and produce information.
Portugal´s new Sovereign AI LLM platform Silicon Sailor provides each internal user only with the information for which they already have access authorization, fully respecting existing authentication, authorization, and permission control mechanisms. Silicon Sailor was designed to operate on infrastructure controlled by the Portuguese Navy, allowing information to remain in segregated environments subject to applicable security policies.
