ThalesRaytheonSystems, in presence of the representatives of the two shareholders Thales and Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin have signed a MoU to develop territorial ballistic missile defence capabilities for NATO’s Air Command and Control System (ACCS).
This partnership will offer reinforced protection capabilities to help NATO manage ballistic missile attacks for all the European nations of the Alliance. The territory to be covered is equivalent to a surface area of more than 10 million square kilometres. NATO would have access to an integrated, secure solution, which is developed with the different industrial nations from NATO nations.
ThalesRaytheonSystems will be prime contractor and system integrator for the defence solution, which will combine operational experience and components coming from different partners. Lockheed Martin developed the ballistic missile defence planning capability through its Defense Design System (DDS). Additionally, both Lockheed Martin and Raytheon bring significant expertise and experience as prime contractors for the United States’ ballistic missile defence capability.
According to Eric Marceau, CEO of ThalesRaytheonSystems, "This MoU is the follow-on of a project that began in 2008 when we decided to work together with Lockheed Martin to develop the NATO theatre ballistic missile defence capability. We are committed to expanding this partnership into Territorial Missile Defence. This will provide our customer, NATO, with the systems it needs to protect all the populations and territories covered within the European Alliance."
"For years ThalesRaytheonSystems and Lockheed Martin have combined their strengths to provide NATO with a Theater Missile Defense capability,” said Jon Rambeau, Vice President C4ISR and Undersea Systems for Lockheed Martin. “Our team's focus is to leverage our collective strengths to bring superior experience, technology and resources to offer NATO a territorial BMD command and control system to counter future threats.”