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09 13 2021

NCI Agency delivers Voice Communications System to the Romanian Air Force

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) successfully delivered a new Voice Communications System (VCS) to the Romanian Air Force.

This new capability will strengthen Romania's ability to participate in national and NATO-related air policing missions and operations. The VCS, which supports telephone calls, voice loops and ground-air-ground radios, makes it easier for Romania to share situational awareness with other NATO and Partner Nations. With this new system, operators can use the same workstation to control aircraft via radios connected to the system, while simultaneously sending or receiving secure and non-secure telephone calls.

The NCI Agency's Air and Missile Defence Command and Control (AMDC2) Directorate procured the capability from a consortium formed by CS Group France and Thales Norway.

"The VCS will greatly improve Romania's capabilities in support of National and NATO Air Policing Missions. The project was delivered in an excellent spirit of cooperation between all teams in order to deliver a quality product integrated into Romania's communications infrastructure," said Naziha Degroote, Air Command and Control (AirC2) Programme Manager, NCI Agency.

Colonel George Palalau, from the Communication and Information Air Operational Component of the Romanian Air Force, acknowledged "the full satisfaction of the Romanian Air Force for the success of the project, which was largely due to the careful and professional coordination carried out by NCI Agency."

Director AMDC2, Michael Stoltz, thanked his project team and said: "The deployment of the VCS has increased NATO's shared situational awareness and command and control capability throughout this region, improving Supreme Allied Commander Europe's (SACEUR) ability to execute NATO-related air policing missions and operations."

The VCS is now operational in five Nations: Bulgaria, Iceland, Latvia and Romania, who all received an updated solution based on equipment delivered to Lithuania in 2017. The final VCS will be delivered to Estonia by end of 2021.