Neuralix has delivered a defense-oriented foundation model along with a sovereign GenAI platform that functions within the Indian Army’s isolated, air-gapped network.
India’s next generation of military AI must be sovereign by design. Neuralix has demonstrated that this capability can be built from the ground up, securely and at mission speed.”— Maj Gen Ravi Murugan, PVSM, AVSM, Senior Adviser, Neuralix AINEW DELHI, INDIA, September 2, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Neuralix AI Private Limited has created a sovereign AI foundation model purpose-built for military applications from the ground up, plus a unified Generative AI platform that operates exclusively inside the Indian Army’s protected digital environment. This accomplishment represents a major milestone in the field of sovereign defense artificial intelligence. Instead of modifying a general-purpose or open-source model for a defense role, Neuralix constructed a foundation model centered on military requirements, featuring its own architecture and model weights, with a training and development workflow tailored to the defense sector.
This model was engineered to comprehend defense-specific vocabulary, military concepts, doctrines, strategies, complex Army paperwork, and domain-specific expertise, so it can produce structured insights for authorized military personnel. Its knowledge and retrieval framework was also constructed around military information needs, rather than merely applying conventional retrieval-augmented generation to a standard language model. The foundation model employs a Mixture-of-Experts architecture and was built within the Indian Army’s environment, permitting sensitive data to stay under Army oversight during both development and operation. Neuralix’s efforts are being conducted under the Indian Army’s AI-as-a-Service with infrastructure setup initiative within the iDEX ADITI 2.0 program. Following a competitive selection process involving multiple applicants, Neuralix was chosen as the technology developer. The Directorate General of Information Systems (DGIS) acts as the Indian Army’s steering and user agency, Neuralix as the technology developer, and the Defence Innovation Organisation as the contracting body under iDEX ADITI 2.0.
In addition to the foundation model, Neuralix developed EKAM, a unified sovereign military Generative AI platform that runs exclusively within the Indian Army’s digital network and computing infrastructure. EKAM was unveiled by the Hon’ble Raksha Mantri at the Chanakya Defence Dialogue and offers a secure environment that can host multiple AI models, specialized services, and military use cases. EKAM functions inside an air-gapped environment, completely separated from the public internet and external cloud services. It can accommodate the military foundation model, as well as specialized Small Language Models created for particular Army needs, and other AI capabilities that might be integrated in the future. Together, the platform and foundation model secure sovereignty across three critical dimensions: the model, the data, and the infrastructure. Model sovereignty means the architecture, weights, and evolution of the AI system can stay under controlled custody rather than relying on an external commercial AI provider. Data sovereignty ensures that confidential Army information never leaves the Army environment. Infrastructure sovereignty allows the entire system to operate on Army-controlled compute and networks without depending on public cloud infrastructure or external APIs.
Building modern AI inside such a restrictive environment posed a considerable engineering challenge. Most contemporary AI development assumes continuous access to software repositories, model hubs, external libraries, APIs, and cloud services. Within an air-gapped defense network, these dependencies cannot be accessed on demand. Neuralix engineers had to securely import required dependencies into the environment, modify components when needed, and in some cases develop or adapt software so the complete AI stack could function efficiently without any external connectivity. Neuralix adopted a forward-deployed engineering approach throughout the project, with its technical team working inside the environment provided by DGIS and building the technology closely aligned with Army requirements.
This methodology allowed the technology to be developed around the user while confidential Army data remained with the user. No sensitive information needed to be moved to an external AI environment for Neuralix to develop, test, and refine the system. In just over one year, Neuralix has delivered both a unified sovereign military GenAI platform and a ground-up military foundation model within an extremely secure and restricted defense environment. These two capabilities constitute distinct but complementary achievements. EKAM provides the sovereign platform and infrastructure layer, while the military foundation model supplies an intelligence layer designed specifically around defense knowledge and military needs.
Going forward, this architecture could potentially lay the groundwork for a broader military AI ecosystem, possibly supporting specialized military agents, decision-support systems, operational software, edge-deployed AI capabilities, and other secure applications built around future Army requirements. Any expansion into additional operational or military systems would be subject to the appropriate development, evaluation, and deployment procedures. For Neuralix, this program demonstrates that an Indian technology company can construct a military-specific foundation model from scratch, develop a complete sovereign GenAI platform around it, and make the entire technology stack operate within an air-gapped defense environment while keeping sensitive military data under Army control.
As governments worldwide consider how artificial intelligence should be employed in defense and other critical national infrastructure, control over models, data, and infrastructure is becoming more crucial. Neuralix’s collaboration with the Indian Army showcases one method of uniting these requirements: building the model for the mission, developing the technology around the user, and embedding sovereignty at the core of the entire AI stack.
Tarang Singh
Neuralix AI Pvt. Ltd.
info@neuralix.ai
