ThalesRaytheonSystems to Upgrade NATO Missile Defense Capabilities

The NATO Communications and Information Agency signed with ThalesRaytheonSystems a 136 million Euro ($177,969,630 U.S.) contract for a significant upgrade to NATO’s current theatre missile defense command and control capability. By bringing new capabilities to NATO’s Air Command and Control System (ACCS), the upgrade will strengthen and expand NATO’s existing theatre missile defence command and control system, which allows the alliance to link national sensors and interceptors to defend against short and medium range ballistic missile threats. The upgrade also improves the capacity of NATO’s Air Command in Ramstein to plan and execute a missile defence battle. The contract, called ACCS Theatre Missile Defence 1, will bring new capabilities to NATO’s Air Command and Control System for receiving and processing ballistic missile tracks, including integration of additional radar and satellite feeds, major enhancement to data communication capacity and improved correlation features. The upgrade is expected to be completed by 2015.