The NATO Lessons Learned Conference 2026 officially gets underway tomorrow under the theme “Audacious Learning through Audacious Training" — bringing together NATO, Allied Nations, Commands, organizations and Lessons Learned practitioners for two days focused firmly on one question: How do we learn and adapt faster than the challenges we face?
Today is Day 0: a chance to arrive, reconnect and prepare for what promises to be a fast-moving programme of debate, discussion and, importantly, and how we exploit what we are learning. Because this year's conference is not simply about identifying lessons. It is about what happens next. NATO is operating in a security environment where the time available between recognizing change and responding to it is shrinking. Technology is evolving at remarkable speed. Battlefield experience is generating new insights every day. Nations across the Alliance are adapting their forces, processes and capabilities — sometimes in real time. In that environment, learning cannot be something that happens only after the event. It has to become part of how NATO operates.
Over the coming two days, NLLC26 will explore that challenge from multiple perspectives: from battlefield experience and next-generation targeting to artificial intelligence, interoperability, accelerated learning and national approaches to large-scale adaptation.
Day 1 will begin with battlefield experience and its implications for Multi-Domain Operations before turning to the role of AI in military decision-making. The afternoon moves from interoperability “under fire" to the relationship between Audacious Training and Audacious Learning — and how concepts such as SABRE and RIVAL could help turn operational insight into adaptation at speed.
Day 2 will bring the National Perspective: examining the practical use of AI in national Lessons Learned systems and how armed forces can learn and adapt at scale in response to world events.
And underneath all of those discussions sits a simple idea.
Being audacious means being prepared to challenge how we have always done things. It means asking whether our processes move quickly enough. Whether information gets to the people who need it. Whether new technology is being exploited effectively. Whether the lessons identified in one part of the Alliance can benefit somebody somewhere else before they have to learn the same lesson themselves. Most importantly, it means recognizing that the value of Lessons Learned is not measured by how many lessons we collect.
It is measured by what changes because we learned them. So, badges ready. Coffee incoming. Conversations already starting. NLLC26 is here.
And over the next two days, we intend to be AUDACIOUS.
