From NATO Communications and Information Agency: [A]t a conference in Rome senior officials from the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency updated Transatlantic Industry leaders on potential upcoming business opportunities in the area of C4ISR and communication capabilities to support NATO missions and operations.
The new Agency is a result of the merger of the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A), the NATO ACCS Management Agency (NACMA), the NATO Communication and Information Systems Services Agency (NCSA), the ALTBMD Programme Office and elements of NATO HQ ICTM.
The aim of the conference is to give early warning of potential business opportunities coming up in the next 18 months so that Industry can prepare for competition. Some 2.1 billion Euro worth of opportunities was discussed with the caveat that some of the projects are yet to be approved by NATO’s resource committees and may be impacted by changes in NATO’s operations and missions. Several projects however have already been authorized and call for bids will be launched at the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013.
“The aim of our conference is transparency and early warning so that Industry has time to prepare for potential competitions and that we maximize competition,” said NCI General Manager, Major General (ret.) Koen Gijsbers, “I am pleased that we saw a record attendance compared to past events; after the Agency reform we now provide Industry with a one-stop shop for NATO C4ISR, cyber and missile defence; in times of austerity this helps to lower the cost of doing business with NATO. . . .”
Some of the specific opportunities discussed included:
· Continued NATO investment in ballistic missile defence
· Secure satellite communication capabilities
· Cyber defence
· Information and communications infrastructure for the new NATO Headquarters
· NATO software applications to support multinational operations
· C-IED technologies to support NATO operations that leverage lessons learned from Afghanistan (graphic: NATO)