Defense News:
Fresh on the heels of signing a $100 million contract to upgrade NATO’s air and missile defense command, ThalesRaytheonSystems (TRS) displayed a new integrated computer platform at the Paris Air Show on Monday.
The setup, which runs NATO’s standard Air Command and Control System (ACCS) on a PC hardware platform, gives sites in the European network twice the computing power while requiring five times less space. This advancement is just another way that TRS has overcome the technical hurdles of running all of the alliance’s air command and control efforts together with the air and missile defense systems of various member countries, said Stephen duMont, TRS’ vice president of NATO C4I.
When running at full capacity, the network will have 15 sites: four validation sites in Glons, Belgium; Uedem, Germany; the Lyon-Mt. Verdun air base in France; and Poggio Renatico, Italy; and 11 replication sites spread around member nations in Europe. An additional 10 sites could be added to cover population centers, duMont said. Given the geopolitical unrest in Eastern Europe, some of these might be on NATO’s eastern border, he said.
“We’re at a pivotal point in the program,” duMont said. “Now is the time when the alliance needs a system.”
The network will also integrate with NATO’s missile defense command, linking with the alliance’s Allied Air Command in Rammstein, Germany. So instead of separate programs for air defense and missile defense run by a variety of local militaries, the information will be available in real time across one big network.
“One of the things we’re focused intensely on now is theater missile defense capability,” duMont said during a briefing for reporters at the Paris Air Show.
While the system offers real-time interaction between combined air operations centers, air operations centers, RAP production center and sensor fusion post, it also gives observers with access to NATO’s secure network the ability to see the same data via a web browser in real time. These remote viewers will be in “read only” mode initially, although two-way communications involving remote sites is under discussion.
Once countries have the chance to train its operators and integrate their national programs into the network, it could be operational by mid-2016, with the additional 10 sites added by the end of 2018, duMont said.
