LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 16, 2026--
Vantor, the leader in unified spatial intelligence, announced today it has joined the UK Ministry of Defence and industry partners to launch the UK Defence Intelligence Innovation Cluster, a new collaboration designed to accelerate the development and deployment of next-generation defence and intelligence capabilities and strengthen the UK’s sovereign defence industrial base.
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The cluster is being established through Project FAIRFAX, a joint initiative between the UK Ministry of Defence, Huntingdonshire District Council, Vantor, CGI UK and MAIAR. Together, the founding partners are creating a permanent hub at RAF Wyton where the UK government, industry and academia can work together on operational challenges, evaluate emerging technologies and accelerate promising capabilities into operational use.
As a founding partner, Vantor will bring its extensive expertise in commercial spatial intelligence, including mission software, AI-enabled analytics, and 2D and 3D spatial data, as well as experience integrating those capabilities into defence and intelligence workflows.
“The Defence Intelligence Innovation Cluster is about building a long-term national capability that goes far beyond the opening of a new facility,” said Mike Buckley, Senior Director and Head of UK Business at Vantor. “By bringing defence, industry and academia together around real operational challenges, we can accelerate innovation, strengthen sovereign capability and build an ecosystem that delivers lasting operational advantage for the UK.”
Project FAIRFAX will work alongside the Ministry of Defence’s National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence (NCGI) at RAF Wyton. The cluster will host operational sprints, technology demonstrations, engineering workshops, mission-focused experimentation and innovation challenges. These activities will connect operational users directly with developers and researchers, enabling technologies to be tested and refined around real defence needs and shortening the journey from concept to deployed capability.
The Defence Intelligence Innovation Cluster is designed to grow beyond its founding partners, to include additional defence companies, subject matter experts, universities, research organizations, and technology innovators across geospatial intelligence, artificial intelligence, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), mission engineering and space-enabled technologies.
About Project FAIRFAX
Project FAIRFAX is a long-term initiative to build the UK Defence Intelligence Innovation Cluster at RAF Wyton. Working alongside the National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence (NCGI), it brings together Defence, local government, industry, academia and technology partners to accelerate operational capability and support the UK’s defence industrial base.
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About Vantor
Vantor is forging the new frontier of spatial intelligence, empowering nations and global businesses with the power to command the ground truth from space to ground. We integrate our trusted intelligence, sovereign control, and AI-powered capabilities to build a unified picture of what’s happening on Earth and in space. Fueled by the Vantor imaging satellite constellation, Vantor’s Tensorglobe platform orchestrates the full spatial intelligence cycle—from tasking and fusion to analysis and delivery—anchoring real-time data from space, air and ground to Vantor’s uniquely accurate, AI-ready spatial foundation. With this combination of hardware, data, and operational software, Vantor supports the missions that matter most, from real-time mapmaking and GEOINT analysis to tactical operations, persistent monitoring and autonomy.
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Vantor's Mike Buckley with RAF Wyton officials, council and industry partners at the FAIRFAX Collaboration Hub opening.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci will learn his fate Wednesday when international judges at a court in The Hague deliver verdicts in his war crimes trial.
Thaci is facing multiple counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture and persecution alongside three other former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army who fought Serb forces in the 1998-99 war. They are widely regarded as national heroes in their homeland.
Thousands of people rallied in Pristina over the weekend in support of the four men. The protesters filled a central square in the capital, many carrying red and black Albanian flags.
Portraits of the four former KLA fighters have been plastered across the city along with a huge digital clock counting down to Wednesday's verdicts.
“In the name of the people, declare them innocent," one banner read.
Prosecutors at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers court in The Hague have asked for a maximum 45-year prison sentence for Thaci and the other defendants, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi. They have all denied the charges against them.
“Throughout my life, I stood with the people of Kosovo defending freedom, life and dignity. I was always guided by the Western ideals of democracy, equality and justice,” Thaci told judges in February at the end of his nearly three-year trial.
According to prosecutors, the men targeted political opponents and civilians perceived as collaborators and traitors during their time in the KLA.
The staff at the European Union-backed court are largely international due to fears about witness safety and security. In 2022, the court convicted two leaders of a Kosovo war veterans’ association for intimidating witnesses by publicizing leaked confidential documents.
Thaci also faces a separate trial on charges of intimidating witnesses that will begin later this month.
He was a student who returned from what he described as political exile in Switzerland to join Kosovo’s struggle for independence. He earned the nickname “the Snake” for his ability to evade Serb forces during the conflict.
He was embraced by Western leaders, who invited him to the 1999 peace talks in France in his role as political director of the Kosovo Liberation Army, and was seen as a leader who could guide the country toward independence.
Thaci rose to political power after the war but resigned as president to defend himself before the court in The Hague.
Most of the 13,000 people who died in the war in Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. A 78-day campaign of NATO airstrikes against Serbian forces ended the fighting. About 1 million ethnic Albanian Kosovars were driven from their homes.
In 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, a move that Belgrade refuses to recognize. Ties between Kosovo and Serbia remain tense, despite years of negotiations mediated by the European Union and supported by the United States.
Associated Press reporter Molly Quell contributed to this report.
FILE - Head of Kosovo Parliament Kadri Veseli, left, congratulates newly elected president of Kosovo Hashim Thaci during a parliamentary session in Kosovo capital Pristina on Friday Feb. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu, File)
FILE - Kosovo Liberation Army leader Hashim Thaci, right, and KLA general commander Agim Ceku attend a memorial ceremony for ethnic Albanian leader Fehmi Agani in Pristina, Kosovo, Friday, Aug. 6, 1999. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)
FILE - Hashim Thaci, head of the Kosovo Albanian negotiation team and head of the Kosovo Liberation Army political directorate, center, addresses a press conference in a secret location in central Kosovo, Saturday, March 13, 1999. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu, File)
People rally in Pristina, Kosovo, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in support of the former president Hashim Thaci and the other defendants, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi ahead of their verdicts next week at a Netherlands-based court which tried them for alleged war crimes during a 1998-1999 separatist war from Serbia. (AP Photo/Zana Cimili)
People rally in Pristina, Kosovo, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in support of the former president Hashim Thaci and the other defendants, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi ahead of their verdicts next week at a Netherlands-based court which tried them for alleged war crimes during a 1998-1999 separatist war from Serbia. (AP Photo/Zana Cimili) ADDITION: adds the names of the former president Hashim Thaci and the other defendants, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi
People rally in Pristina, Kosovo, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in support of the former president Hashim Thaci and the other defendants, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi ahead of their verdicts next week at a Netherlands-based court which tried them for alleged war crimes during a 1998-1999 separatist war from Serbia. (AP Photo/Zana Cimili)
FILE - Former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci, top left, appears before the Kosovo Tribunal as he defends himself against charges including murder, torture and persecution allegedly committed during his country's war for independence from Serbia in the Hague, on April 3, 2023. (Koen van Weel/Pool via AP, File)
