A resurgent Russia and North Korea has made air and missile defence a top priority for the NATO military alliance and its member countries.

Air and missile defence specialists, ThalesRaytheonSystems recently announced it had signed a €92.5 million contract with NATO for a significant upgrade to the Alliance’s current missile defence command and control capability.

By bringing new capabilities to NATO’s Air Command and Control System, 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 defense,” 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.”

“With this contract ThalesRaytheonSystems will launch additional functions on top of the ones we develop for the satisfaction of the user community.” said Philippe Duhamel, CEO of ThalesRaytheonSystems. The project involves a transatlantic industrial base across eight nations and 15 industry partners. It 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.

ThalesRaytheonSystems' AN/MPQ-64F1 Improved Sentinel

ThalesRaytheon Systems also recently announced that NATO member country, Latvia, will procure four Improved Sentinel AN/MPQ-64 F1 air defence radars. The Sentinel procurement, the first of its kind for the Latvian Armed Forces, will complement the country’s existing defence network by detecting, identifying and tracking airborne threats including: fixed and rotary wing aircraft, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.