VTT and Millog to combine forces on NATO defence-tech testing, expanding earlier partnership
Finnish research institute VTT and defence maintenance firm Millog will jointly staff Finland’s NATO DIANA test centre, adding field-testing capacity to a facility built to validate emerging technologies for both civilian and military use.
Text by Martti Asikainen, 1.9.2026 | Adobe Stock Photos
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Millog, a Finnish defence and security maintenance company, have agreed to expand their collaboration within NATO’s DIANA innovation programme, according to a press release published by VTT on 26 August. Millog will supplement VTT’s existing testing services at Finland’s DIANA test centre with its own evaluation and validation environments.
DIANA — the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic — is a NATO initiative that funds testing infrastructure and start-up support across member states to help develop technologies with both civilian and military applications, known as dual-use technologies. VTT already operates within the DIANA network through two test centres and one business accelerator.
Testing capabilities combined
VTT’s contribution to the DIANA test centre network covers testing environments for 6G connectivity, quantum technologies, space technologies and secure data transfer, allowing companies to develop and validate new technologies, according to the release. Millog will add its own testing and evaluation infrastructure, including environments that simulate real operational conditions, both physical and digital.
The release states that Millog’s facilities offer field-testing capability, which it describes as a particular strength for the DIANA network’s testing, evaluation, validation and verification requirements — the formal process NATO-affiliated centres use to assess whether new technologies meet defence standards.
“With VTT, we will be supporting the development of solutions that improve safety in Finland and for our allies,” said Toni Piispa, vice president of the authorities and industry business unit at Millog. He described the arrangement as a natural extension of the two organisations’ earlier cooperation, rather than a new venture.
Vice president of defence at VTT, Mikko Salomaa, said the partnership reinforced the test centre’s capabilities and was intended to help Finnish companies access international markets. He added that the aim was to speed up the development of new capabilities for the Finnish Defence Forces and allied nations, in keeping with NATO’s approach to rapid technology deployment.
A year-old partnership grows
The new testing collaboration builds directly on a cooperation agreement between VTT and Millog signed at the end of 2025, aimed at advancing innovation in the defence sector, according to the release. Tuesday’s announcement represents an expansion of that relationship rather than the start of an entirely new one.
Neither the scale of the expanded collaboration nor any financial terms were disclosed in the release. VTT, a state-owned research organisation, and Millog, which primarily serves Finland’s defence and security sector, both stand to benefit from the arrangement, and no independent assessment of the test centre’s capacity or its comparative standing among NATO’s other DIANA sites was included in the announcement.
