On 19 October 2015, the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency and Thales Raytheon Systems signed an initial contract for the support and maintenance of NATO's Air Command and Control System (ACCS).
The NATO Air Command and Control System (ACCS) programme will provide the Alliance with a single, integrated air command and control system to manage all air operations across the NATO area of responsibility and out of area. When rolled out it will replace both NATO and national systems from northern Norway to eastern Turkey in support of the NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence System.
The signature of the Provisional Software Acceptance in December 2014 was the final step in the process of developing NATO ACCS. This new contract for the support and maintenance of NATO ACCS represents another significant milestone for both the Agency and for industry as it marks the transition of from the development phase to full in-service support. The award of the contract also underlines the growing confidence in the key role of the Agency in delivering military capabilities through life.
"ACCS is NATO's largest C2 system and putting together a support and maintenance contract has been quite a challenge," said Koen Gijsbers, the NCI Agency's General Manager. "This contract offers us the flexibility to use both the Agency's in house capabilities and specialist industrial knowledge as needed."