More than 600 senior North American and European industry representatives attended a NATO conference in Rome this week to discuss potential opportunities in C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance).
According to a NATO release, the alliance could spend up to $2.85 billion on C4ISR projects, conditioned on approval from NATO’s resource committees and changes in NATO’s operations and missions.
Several projects have already been authorized and the alliance said it will call for bids 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 Koen Gijsbers, general manager of the NATO Communications and Information Agency and a retired Dutch army major general.
Gijsbers added the alliance wants to “provide industry with a one-stop shop for NATO C4ISR, cyber and missile defense.”
The alliance signed a $1.7 billion contract with Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) in May for five Global Hawk drones equipped with ground surveillance sensors.
NATO said topics discussed at the conference included ballistic missile defense, cyber defense, information and communications infrastructure for the new alliance headquarters, software applications for multinational operations and technology for countering improvised explosive devices.
According to Defense News, nearly $77.5 million in ballistic missile contracts are expected to be put out for tender during the first half of 2013.
