Lockheed Martin and ThalesRaytheonSystems to provide NATO with battlespace intelligence system.

Lockheed Martin and ThalesRaytheonSystems are joining forces to provide the NATO Alliance with a territorial Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) command and control capability. This Teaming Agreement, signed in the presence of Raytheon and Thales, the two shareholders of the joint venture, establishes a transatlantic team that combines the depth and breadth of decades of expertise from Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, with the European air command and control capabilities of Thales. The overall team will include industry representatives from across the Alliance to deliver a low risk capability for NATO's Air Command and Control BMD program.

Daniel O’Neil, TRS Contracts, and Dr. Rob Smith, vice president of C4ISR for Lockheed Martin’s Rotary and Mission Systems (Picture source: Lockheed Martin)

At the 2010 Lisbon Summit, NATO leaders decided to develop a Missile Defence Capability to protect all NATO European populations and territories against ballistic missile attacks. The Alliance's Heads of State and Government stated that they see this as a core element of NATO's collective defence task in view of the growing threat of the proliferation of ballistic missile technology and weapons of mass destruction. The focus of the Programme is the upgrade, test and integration of NATO's command and control (C2) systems and underlying communication network to enable effective information exchanges between various NATO and national missile defence systems. This integrated system-of-systems architecture will provide NATO forces, whether deployed within or beyond NATO's area of responsibility, with the capability to defend NATO populations and territories.

Dave Gulla, vice president of Mission Systems and Solutions, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, stated, "Our companies are committed to providing the best technical and program talent available to provide a low risk and operationally relevant NATO BMD capability. We are confident that this teaming framework creates the best value for NATO and ensures delivery of a timely and effective territorial BMD capability."

"Lockheed Martin delivered the Defence Design System for NATO's BMD planning capability. We will leverage that success, as well as our expertise in command and control, weapon system development and systems integration to achieve the Alliance goals," said Dr. Rob Smith, vice president of C4ISR for Lockheed Martin's Rotary and Mission Systems. "Lockheed's success in delivering the C2 capability for US Ballistic Missile Defense System is a result of our focus on end user needs. We delivered a very complex C2 capability that is intuitive and effective for mission execution. We accomplished this in partnership with Raytheon and other US companies and we look forward to delivering this capability with Thales and TRS."

"This teaming agreement is perfectly aligned with our four companies orientations towards both system of systems innovative solutions and reinforcing existing partnerships, which proved its value through the previous joint successes such as Theater Missile Defense," said Thomas Got, Head of the Air Operations and Weapons System line of business for Thales Group. "Our companies will join the best of each in meeting NATO's command and control needs."

According to Eric Marceau, CEO of the TRS Joint Venture, "This Teaming Agreement codifies the relationship established with Lockheed Martin in 2008 to deliver NATO's Theater Missile Defence capability. It will further our collaboration to deliver the full spectrum capability the Alliance requires for territorial Ballistic Missile Defense. This team will provide the operational command and control capability for the protection for all NATO European populations, territory and forces against the threats posed by ballistic missiles."