A bilateral military group on artificial intelligence between the UAE and the United States was officially launched in Abu Dhabi, although the idea for this cooperation did not arise at the moment of today's announcement.
Five years ago, the commander of US forces, who now leads Central Command, conducted experiments with a scaled-down version of this concept in a maritime setting.
The 'Talon Synapse' group brings together about twenty specialists from the UAE and America working in the fields of AI, data processing, and cybersecurity. According to the UAE embassy in Washington, the group started after the US Central Command announced an agreement for its creation on July 28.
The main task of the group is to apply AI to support intelligence, protect critical infrastructure, and monitor the regional security situation.
For Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of Centcom, the new unit is a continuation of long-standing efforts to integrate AI, unmanned systems, and regional partners into a unified operational picture.
In September 2021, as commander of the US Central Command Naval Forces and the US Fifth Fleet, Cooper established the 'Task Force 59' in Bahrain. This was the first US Navy group created specifically for the rapid integration of unmanned systems and AI into maritime operations. The goals of this group were to enhance maritime situational awareness and ensure deterrence.
The UAE joined this experiment in February 2023. During a week of exercises off the UAE coast, five unmanned surface vessels, operated by the UAE Navy and 'Task Force 59', used cameras and sensors to collect images of nearby vessels. The collected data was transmitted ashore, where AI platforms helped detect, identify, and classify objects seen by the systems.
The US Navy called this its first joint exercise with the UAE on integrating unmanned systems and AI.
The 'Task Force 59' exercise planner, Lieutenant Jay Faleo, noted at the time that 'this exercise allowed us to further train our artificial intelligence platforms on sorting new datasets.'
The 'Talon Synapse' group goes beyond a single maritime exercise. Instead of gathering parties for a specific test, the Abu Dhabi-based structure forms a permanent bilateral team focused exclusively on military AI.
The institutional basis for cooperation has also expanded. In May 2025, the UAE and the US signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a Core Defense Partnership covering military cooperation, joint capability development, and interoperability. A few days later, the US Defense Innovation Unit and the Tavazun Council signed a separate memorandum dedicated to defense technologies, including joint capability development and access to laboratories and testing ranges.
Following this, Washington eased export controls regarding the UAE in July, including the country in the US export control group A:5 and expanding access for approved organizations to certain military, space, dual-use, and advanced computing technologies.
Central Command has not publicly disclosed details of the specific AI systems that 'Talon Synapse' will develop or implement. However, the launch of this group transforms relationships that were previously limited to unmanned vessel experiments and software training for sensor data interpretation into a permanent joint structure where specialists from the UAE and America are now expected to work side-by-side in Abu Dhabi.