NATO AGS Contract Signed at NATO Summit to NORTHROP GRUMMAN-led Industry Team CASSIDIAN will Deliver Substantial Contributions to the AGS

CASSIDIAN, the defence and security company of EADS, brings its expertise in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), data exploitation and secure data links into NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) programme. NATO completed the signing of a contract with NORTHROP GRUMMAN on May 20 at the NATO Summit in Chicago, as prime contractor, to provide the AGS Core System including air and ground segment.

EADS Deutschland GmbH, operating through Cassidian, the defence and security division of EADSwill supply the Mobile Ground Segment (MGS) entities in close cooperation with subcontracted companies in six other AGS participating nations including CzechRepublic, Estonia, Latvia,Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia. Cassidian’s MGS is the mobile part of the AGS Core Ground Segment responsible for the exploitation of reconnaissance sensor data and further distribution within NATO’s command structure.

Stefan Zoller, CEO Cassidian, said: "Cassidian is proud to play a key role in this important programme for NATO. We have extensive capabilities, competence and know-how within ISR systems and a long history of successful deliveries to NATO. Our experienced AGS team will do everything to make AGS a successful programme for Northrop Grumman and for NATO."

The NATO-owned and operated AGS core system will enable the alliance to perform persistent surveillance over wide surface areas from High-Altitude, Long-Endurance Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Using an advanced radar sensor, the AGS core system will continuously provide radar imagery as well as detect and track moving objects throughout the observed areas. The collected surveillance data will be transmitted in near real-time to the AGS core ground segment for exploitation and then disseminated to interoperable NATO and alliance member’s national systems.

The Mobile Ground Segment will provide data link connectivity, data processing, exploitation capabilities and interfaces for interoperability with a wide range of C4ISR systems to interconnect with and provide data to multiple deployed and non-deployed operational users. This includes reach-back facilities, remote from the surveillance area.