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03 30 2014

NATO Agency outlines major Transatlantic business opportunities

The briefings were delivered during the joint NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency Industry Conference and AFCEA Europe Technet International held in Bucharest, Romania.

In addition to discussing emerging technology trends and challenges in partnership with AFCEA, the annual event gives early warning of business opportunities coming up in the C4ISR domain in the next 18 months, so that Industry can prepare for competition.

Some of the upcoming business opportunities discussed included:

• Over 600 million Euro in infrastructure investments, including some 90 million for communications infrastructure as well as deployable capabilities in 2014, 70 million Euro for core enterprise services in 2014-2016, and 500 million Euro for SATCOM in the 2017 timeframe;
• Joint ISR, including the networks and communications at over 270 million Euro to support the Alliance's Ground Surveillance Programme, to be competed in 2016;
• The Alliance's IT modernization programme, with investment of over 100 million Euro expected to be competed in 2015;
• Approximately 50 million Euro worth of potential investments in command and control software, including maritime, land command and control software upgrades, with several calls for bids expected in 2014 and 2015;
• About 65 million Euro planned continuing cyber investments including Public Key Infrastructure (PIK) and network encryption devices with call for bids estimated for end 2014;
• Continuing investments in air command and control and ballistic missile defence;
• C-IED for the NATO Response Force.

Also, Industry was briefed on key themes for the upcoming NATO Summit in Wales, as well as major Alliance programmes, such as Federated Mission Networking, which will influence future acquisitions. Both NATO HQ and the operational community were presented their perspectives on the emerging strategic environment and priorities.

Common vision of way ahead

A major theme of the conference was how to further strengthen the Alliance's ability to rapidly implement innovative technology.

"Technological innovation cuts both ways; it helps us but it is also exploited by cyber criminals and adversaries in the mission space. Our ability to implement innovation more rapidly is of strategic importance," said General Manager Koen Gijsbers in his closing remarks, "NATO will continue to streamline and speed its procedures and engage Industry early on in solution development, in order to fully leverage Industry innovation and creativity. However, Industry performance will also come under increasing scrutiny and we will work with the Nations and NATO committees to apply both incentives that reward good performance, as well as penalties."

"But my main take away is that lndustry, technological thinkers and NATO have a shared vision of what needs to be done to boost Alliance agility in implementing innovation and new capabilities. We also share a similar understanding and analysis of the key technological challenges and emerging issues. We know need to act on this," he said.

The conference also emphasized the importance of Education and Training in order to enable full exploitation of both existing and future capabilities. This included a briefing on the Agency's new full lifecycle based structure, including the new Education and Training service line.

At the conference, the Agency unveiled its new Web site, which includes easier access to information on contract opportunities.

To find out more about the opportunities that were briefed, please contact your National Delegation to NATO or National Technical Expert in the Agency, or the Agency's acquisition department.

The Agency's next flagship event will be the NIAS Cyber Security Symposium, 16-18 September 2014 in Mons.

Click here for Agency's personnel briefings.