Palantir says neither the company nor the US government can switch off Maven Smart System, the AI platform used by NATO's military headquarters and several European armed forces. Louis Mosley, Palantir's executive vice president for the UK and Europe, made the claim in an interview in Brussels on Wednesday, saying customers have "full operational control" of the software and can run it independently of Palantir.
Mosley said whether Palantir employees help operate Maven is "entirely at the discretion of the customer." Where they do, those staff are citizens of the country using the software and hold the required security clearance.
“There are no kill switches.”— Louis Mosley, Palantir executive vice president for the UK and Europe
Maven combines data from satellites, radar, drones and other sensors to help military officers make faster decisions. NATO acquired the system for its Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, known as SHAPE, in March 2025, and declared that it had reached "full technical operational capability" in June 2026.
Key facts
- 01Palantir's Louis Mosley said neither Palantir nor the US government can switch off NATO's Maven Smart System.
- 02NATO acquired Maven for its SHAPE headquarters in March 2025 and declared full technical operational capability in June 2026.
- 03Ukraine accused Washington on October 13 of deliberately slowing SpaceX's Starshield and Starlink services.
- 04Germany and France have not adopted Maven for their own forces; France has developed its own system, Arcadia.
Palantir's comments follow disruptions to Ukraine's use of Starshield, the SpaceX-operated military communications service built on Starlink. Ukraine accused Washington on October 13 of deliberately slowing Starshield as well as Starlink, and the disruptions reportedly disabled equipment on Ukrainian drones and hampered drone interceptions.
Accounts of who ordered the slowdown conflict. Two US officials and a Western official have said the order came from the White House, while a senior US official disputed that. Elon Musk said Starshield is "owned and controlled by the US government," and President Donald Trump said he didn't think Musk was responsible and didn't know who was.
Ukrainian and European officials suspected a political motive behind the Starshield disruptions. The episode has sharpened a concern among European leaders that the US could use technology their militaries depend on as political leverage against its allies.
Maven has not won over every NATO member. Germany and France have so far declined to adopt it for their own forces, citing dependence on an American supplier and concerns about a private company's role in battlefield operations.
In April, Thomas Daum, head of Germany's cyber command, ruled out Palantir's technology for now. Daum, a vice admiral, said earlier this year that giving industry personnel access to German datasets was "out of the question."
France has developed its own system, Arcadia, and is moving its domestic intelligence agency to ChapsVision, a French software company. Palantir's position, as Mosley set it out, is that Maven customers control the software, including how they operate it, with or without Palantir staff involved.
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