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05 11 2015

NATO signs contract for Theatre Missile Defence upgrades

On 11 May 2015, the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) signed a €92.5M contract with ThalesRaytheonSystems for a significant upgrade to NATO's current missile defence command and control capability.

By bringing new capabilities to NATO's Air Command and Control System (ACCS), the contract will strengthen and expand the functionality of NATO's existing missile defence command and control system. This will allow the Alliance to link national sensors and interceptors, with NATO's Air Command in Ramstein, Germany, to plan and execute a missile defence battle

"The execution of this contract will be a major step forward for NATO's missile defence," said Koen Gijsbers, NCI Agency's General Manager. "This contract further merges two of NATO's largest common funded investments – air and missile defence – paving the way for an integrated approach. What is important now is its timely execution."

NCI Agency's General Manager, Koen Gijsbers, and ThalesRaytheonSystems' CEO, Philippe Duhamel, signed the contract at the NCI Agency Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The project involves a transatlantic industrial base across 8 Nations and 15 industry partners.

"ThalesRaytheonSystems is very proud to continue to work for NATO on Missile Defence. We will launch additional functions on top of the ones we develop for the satisfaction of the user community. We are committed to deliver them in order to ensure more integration with nations' systems," said Philippe Duhamel, CEO of ThalesRaytheonSystems.

Increased capability

The enhancement will bring new capabilities to the ACCS programme for generating, disseminating, and displaying an Integrated Air and Missile Defence picture; threat evaluation and engagement; tasking/status messages; and cueing of organic sensors. It also includes the further development and deployment of the Defence Design System that will support distributed and collaborative planning through simulation and analysis.

The contract is expected to be completed by 2018. It will be rolled-out in three steps, with the final step offering an integrated single software baseline able to support both air and missile defence.
Once this contract is executed, the ACCS will become a cornerstone of the future NATO Ballistic Missile Defence capability.

The NCI Agency is responsible for executing and managing NATO's priority technology projects, including cyber and missile defence.