Contract
Award for NATO’s Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence Programme
A
key decision has been taken for NATO’s Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile
Defence (ALTBMD) Programme. Marking a
major milestone in Alliance efforts to field a “layered†theatre missile
defence system providing protection for deployed NATO forces, a selection of an
international consortium to build an Integration Test Bed puts NATO on track to
have an initial operational capability by 2010.
The
NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment, Marshall Billingslea,
announced today that a team of companies led by Science Applications
International Corporation (SAIC) had launched a successful bid for the ALTBMD
Programme System Engineering & Integration (SE & I) contract. The contract that will be awarded to the
SAIC consortium is focused on the development of a NATO architecture for
protection of deployed NATO forces from ballistic missile threats, and the
design and installation of an ALTBMD Integration Test Bed (ITB). The winning
consortium, led by SAIC from
McLean from Virginia, U.S.A., is comprised of
the following companies: Raytheon (US), EADS Astrium (Europe), Thales (FR) Thales
Raytheon System Company (FR/US); IABG (GE), TNO (NL), Qinetiq (UK), DATAMAT
(IT); Diehl (GE). Source selection was conducted
using NATO International Competitive Bidding (ICB) procedures by the Alliance’s
Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) and the ALTBMD Programme
Office, under the leadership of the ALTBMD Programme Manager, Michel Billard.
The contract is worth approximately 75 Million Euro for work that will be conducted over a period of
6 years.
Welcoming
this development, NATO’s Assistant Secretary General, Marshall Billingslea,
described the programme and the placing of the contract as an â€Âexcellent
example of transatlantic armaments co-operationâ€Â. "We look forward to partnering with SAIC and the other
companies to build the first phase of this critical system. We urgently need a NATO theatre missile
defense system to protect our troops against ballistic missiles. The Test Bed that SAIC will build is
fundamental to the development of these defences. Further, I expect that this test bed, and our ALTBMD program,
could serve as important building blocks for extending our defences to give
even broader protection of NATO nations in the future.â€Â
For
further information, please contact the Programme Manager Mr. Michel Billard,
tel 0032 707 8149 or Mr Bernd Kreienbaum NATO HQ, tel 0032 2707 4291.