In 2005, the North Atlantic Council approved a capability package to provide NATO-Wide Theatre Missile Defence. Five years later, in 2010, Heads of State and Government agreed to expand the programme beyond the protection of NATO deployed forces to also protect NATO European populations, territory and forces.
In July 2016, Allies declared Initial Operational Capability of NATO's BMD capability, which offers a stronger capability to defend Alliance populations, territory and forces across southern NATO Europe against a potential ballistic missile attack. This capability will keep providing the necessary support to NATO as the Agency works to deliver the next expected capability declarations.
The Agency also expects to release this summer another Invitation for Bids under this Programme for an estimated value of 11 million EUR (download the Notification of Intent here). That contract will cover certain services for the BMD Integration Test Bed, which supports test and exercise events at both the system and architecture level.
The Test Bed is responsible for ensuring that technical requirements are met and that operational interoperability with other NATO and national systems is assured.
Bidders are free to bid either one, or on both of these two contracts.