NATO yesterday signed an approximately $3.9 million contract with ThalesRaytheonSystems to deliver a Ballistic Missile Defense Interim Capability element at NATO Air Command, Ramstein, Germany.
NATO Air Command and Control System Management Agency (NACMA) on behalf of the NATO Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defence Program Office, in coordination with the NATO C3 Agency, signed the contract with ThalesRaytheonSystems.
The BMD interim capability element capability will provide the ability to produce an integrated air and missile situational awareness picture at NATO’s Air Command Ramstein, in addition to the capability already established at NATO Combined Air Operations Centre in Uedem, Germany.
Implementation of the contract, expected within three months, will deliver a key component toward NATO’s objective of declaring an interim missile defense capability at its May summit in Chicago.
It will give NATO the capability to conduct 24/7 territorial missile defense operations while simultaneously deploying a theater missile defense command and control capability to any necessary theater of operations.
The new element will increase the availability and resilience of NATO’s BMD capability. The capability will also enhance the NATO Commander’s ability to plan and shape a missile defense mission by monitoring and reporting BMD events to key NATO locations in collaboration with the U.S. armed forces.
The contract will replicate the operational hardware and software of the existing NATO interim theater ballistic missile defense capability in a static implementation at NATO’s Air Command Ramstein.
This system is being implemented by ThalesRaytheonSystems and is based on the latest configuration of the NATO Air Command and Control System (ACCS).
Industry engineers from ThalesRaytheonSystems will work in support of the ALTBMD Program to deliver the ballistic missile defense interim capability element at Ramstein in time to declare NATO’s ballistic missile defense interim capability operational before the May Alliance Summit in Chicago.