| Cost Component | DEFONEOS | Palantir Gotham | Anduril Lattice | BAE Systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software Licensing (per-seat/year) | £0 MIT open-source |
£180K/yr 50 seats × £3,600 |
£240K/yr Proprietary per-drone |
£350K/yr Enterprise licence |
| Implementation / Setup | £45K 90-day Docker deploy |
£800K 6-month consulting |
£1.2M Hardware + integration |
£2.5M 18-month programme |
| Annual Infrastructure | £48K/yr MOD Cloud compute |
£220K/yr Palantir Cloud |
£180K/yr Anduril Cloud |
£400K/yr BAE managed infra |
| Customisation / Integration | £0 30 MCPs pre-built |
£450K Per-source integration |
£300K Limited SDK |
£800K Full BAE services |
| Training & Certification | £0 Free docs + JSP 936 gen |
£120K Official Palantir training |
£90K Anduril academy |
£200K BAE training programme |
| Vendor Lock-in Risk | None Open-source, own your data |
High Proprietary format |
High Hardware + software |
Severe Decades-long dependency |
| 5-YEAR TOTAL | £285,000 | £4,790,000 | £6,200,000 | £12,500,000 |
| SAVINGS vs DEFONEOS | — | 94.1% saved | 95.4% saved | 97.7% saved |
| Capability | DEFONEOS | Palantir Gotham | Anduril Lattice | BAE Systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-source ISR fusion | ✅ 30 sources | ✅ Custom | ✅ Limited | ⚠️ Per-project |
| 3D Common Operating Picture | ✅ Cesium | ✅ Gotham | ✅ Lattice | ⚠️ Legacy |
| Drone swarm autonomy | ✅ Mava RL | ❌ None | ✅ Proprietary | ❌ None |
| Open-source core | ✅ MIT | ❌ Closed | ❌ Closed | ❌ Closed |
| AI governance / audit trail | ✅ BFT-33 + SIGIL | ⚠️ Basic logging | ⚠️ Basic logging | ❌ Ad-hoc |
| JSP 936 compliance | ✅ Auto-generated | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Cursor on Target (CoT) | ✅ FreeTAKServer | ✅ TAK bridge | ⚠️ Proprietary | ❌ No |
| STANAG 4609 (imagery) | ✅ RTSP + GStreamer | ✅ Supported | ✅ Supported | ✅ Supported |
| Edge deployment (Docker) | ✅ Single compose | ❌ Palantir Cloud | ⚠️ Edge hardware | ❌ BAE Cloud |
| UK sovereignty | ✅ UK-built, UK-hosted | ❌ US company | ❌ US company | ✅ UK company |
| AUKUS compatible | ✅ By design | ✅ ITAR compliant | ✅ US-sourced | ✅ UK-sourced |
| Quantum-safe crypto | ✅ ML-DSA-65 | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Deployment time | ✅ 90 days | ⚠️ 6 months | ⚠️ 4 months | ❌ 12-18 months |
| Per-seat licensing | ✅ £0 | ❌ £3,600/seat/yr | ❌ Proprietary | ❌ Enterprise |
| Dual-use (civil/military) | ✅ Same platform | ⚠️ Separate | ❌ Military only | ❌ Military only |
| Source code audit | ✅ Full source | ❌ Closed | ❌ Closed | ❌ Closed |
| Data sovereignty | ✅ Own your data | ❌ Vendor cloud | ❌ Vendor cloud | ⚠️ BAE managed |
| Year | Setup | Infrastructure | Maintenance | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | £45,000 | £48,000 | £15,000 | £108,000 |
| Year 2 | £0 | £50,000 | £12,000 | £62,000 |
| Year 3 | £0 | £52,000 | £12,000 | £64,000 |
| Year 4 | £0 | £54,000 | £12,000 | £66,000 |
| Year 5 | £0 | £56,000 | £12,000 | £68,000 |
| 5yr Total | £45,000 | £260,000 | £63,000 | £285,000 |
Note: DEFONEOS infrastructure cost covers MOD Cloud compute (4 VMs + GPU instance for YOLOv8 inference + Cesium tile server). No software licensing cost because the platform is MIT open-source. Maintenance covers CSOAI Ltd support contract.
| Factor | Why DEFONEOS Wins |
|---|---|
| Data Sovereignty | All data stays on MOD Cloud (UK). No foreign cloud. No foreign jurisdiction. No data extradition risk. |
| Audit Transparency | Full source code available for MOD review. Every AI decision logged via SIGIL Ed25519 hash-chain. 33-agent BFT council for governance. |
| No Vendor Lock-in | MIT licence = MOD owns the deployment forever. CSOAI Ltd can be fired without losing the platform. Source code is on GitHub. |
| Skills Ecosystem | Open-source = UK graduates learn defence AI skills. Universities can teach it. SMEs can extend it. Creates a sovereign talent pipeline. |
| AUKUS Interoperability | US and Australian forces can fork the same platform. Interoperable by design. No ITAR restrictions on the open-source core. |
| Dual-Use Economics | Same platform serves civil emergencies (flood, CBRN, SAR). Local councils can deploy it. Cost-sharing across military and civil budgets. |
| Speed | 90 days from contract to operational demo. Palantir takes 6 months. BAE takes 18 months. In a crisis, speed is capability. |
| Metric | Current (manual/bespoke) | DEFONEOS | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| ISR picture generation time | 4-6 hours | Real-time (< 5 sec) | 99.9% faster |
| Drone operations FTE | 12 (1 pilot per drone) | 3 (1 supervisor per swarm) | 75% reduction |
| Annual software cost | £960K (Palantir equivalent) | £0 | 100% saved |
| Deployment time | 12-18 months | 90 days | 75-83% faster |
| Compliance reporting | 2 weeks per audit | Instant (JSP 936 gen) | 100% automated |
| 5-year TCO | £4.8M-£12.5M | £285K | 94-98% saved |