On 24 April 2017, senior NATO officials briefed around 700 North American and European industry representatives on the first invitations for bids that will be launched in September as part of NATO's major tech refresh.
The discussions were held at the NATO Communication and Information Agency's flagship Industry conference, NITEC17, held in Ottawa, 24-26 April.
In sum, 3 billion EUR will be put to market. The first round of contracts will be competed in September and October 2017 and will include:
- Command and control software for land operations – 2 million EUR
- NATO Joint Targeting System – 8 million EUR
- Logistics for multinational operations – 30 million EUR
- Service Management and Control – 27 million EUR
- Air command and control – 320 million EUR
- New NATO messaging service, information services – over 70 million EUR
- Satellite communication services – approximately 1.5 billion EUR
"The aim of the conference was to give industry an opportunity to prepare for these competitions, including teaming up with partners from both Europe and North America," stressed NCI General Manager Koen Gijsbers.
Broad range of solicitations
The 2017 business opportunities will be followed in 2018 by the next round of invitations for bids that will include a refresh for NATO's cyber shield, investments in education and training, as well as further investments in air command and control, ballistic missile defence, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, business applications and advanced software to support NATO's operations.