CITADEL Range – Cyber Infrastructure for Training in Advanced Defence Exercises and Learning Range – is a project funded by the European Defence Agency (EDF) and aims to study, design, prototype, test, and qualify a suite of cost-effective and advanced cyber range tools and frameworks tailored to prepare the EU and its Member States’ armed forces for delivering full-spectrum cyber defence operations.
The project directly addresses key challenges in enhancing Europe’s cyber defence posture and enabling coordinated responses across Member States. While current practices largely focus on cybersecurity protection measures, operational cyber defence training remains costly and fragmented, particularly when it comes to developing high-fidelity cyber ranges. To overcome these limitations, CITADEL Range will deliver seven interoperable solutions connected through a common protocol. These solutions will integrate with existing cyber ranges rather than creating new infrastructures, thereby reducing costs while significantly improving realism, interoperability, and operational readiness.
CITADEL Range is an EU flagship large-scale project, coordinated by SIHTASUTUS CR14 (Estonia), involving 36 partners from across 19 EU Member States, including academia, industry, SMEs, NGOs, and organizations from the public and private sectors. This broad participation ensures multidisciplinary expertise and strong alignment with operational needs at both national and EU levels. Moreover, more than 19 Ministries of Defence from European Countries are co-funding the project.
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