The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) says the Five Eyes partners are finishing off arrangements to cement in a project to build a shared digital backbone called Arcadia that puts AI into the battlefield.
Arcadia aims to provide a web of critical infrastructure across the New Zealand, Australian, Canadian, UK and US militaries. NZDF said on Tuesday, "Foundational work is continuing while formal arrangements are finalised."
The Pentagon has said Arcadia would be for "operationalising artificial intelligence and mastering command and control data flow". It has expressed high hopes it would enhance both warfighting and deterrence.
"Technological and operational unity with our partners is the bedrock of global stability."
The NZDF said on Tuesday it expected to sign a memorandum of understanding early next year. Its partners were reviewing staffing processes and meanwhile NZDF was taking part in talks about oversight, and in work on common standards, design and interoperability arrangements.
The Five Eyes project fits with NZDF top priorities to boost combat and strike capabilities.
"Digital becomes a force multiplier... The NZDF is... always prepared for conflict in the near term," said a May 2026 paper.
A budget for Arcadia was still to be approved. A "cost ceiling" across all five militaries was blanked out of the documents first released to AUT lecturer Dr Marco de Jong. The briefings said the partners expected to divvy up costs.
Defence here would make a bid for Arcadia money in Budget 2027.
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"DCP 27 is aware of the need for additional funding to be included from B27." DCP 27 is the review currently underway of the 2025 Defence Capability Plan. It remains unclear if this funding was in addition to the extra $9 billion earmarked for new defence spending from 2025-29 under the DCP, which was set up to be reviewed every two years.
Arcadia aims to set up a shared common operating picture between the militaries, whether for training or on battlefields, and a core data and tech platform as well as extra specialised platforms - mission, intelligence, "force generation" and business - to improve not just military effectiveness, but admin efficiency and interoperability between the partners.
The outline of a six-year plan to build the "backbone" showed "joint" and maritime would get new tech first with a focus on high-value systems to "generate proof, trust and early wins". Old systems would start being shut down. A governance system and security guardrails would also be set up in the first phase up to 2030.
Work on "dependency management" came in the second phase from 2031-33. Arcadia aims to be "federated" - non-centralised - and the NZDF papers talk about no "loss of national control".
