This programme represents an

excellent example of transatlantic cooperation, thanks to the multinational

industrial cooperation on which the programme has been founded. The system

consists of air, ground and support segments, performing all-weather, and

persistent wide-area terrestrial and maritime surveillance in near real-time.

It

The Alliance is faced with an

evolving, complex threat environment. NATO and its Allies rely on strong and

resilient protection to fulfil the Alliance’s core tasks of collective defence,

crisis management and cooperative security. NATO needs to be prepared to defend

its networks and operational capabilities against the growing sophistication of

the multitude of threats and attacks it faces.

In the context of a broader response to the

proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems, NATO

continues to develop a system aimed at achieving the full operational

capability providing coverage and protection to all NATO Europe.

These capabilities can be called

upon by NATO commanders as part of the operational planning process to be used

in a NATO-led operation. National and NATO plans must ensure that logistic

resources of sufficient quantity and quality are available at the same

readiness and deployability levels to support forces as needed.

The aim of this capability is to

support the coordinated collection, processing and sharing within NATO of ISR

material gathered by the future Alliance Ground Surveillance system (AGS), the

current NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force (NAEW&C Force) and

Allies’ own ISR assets.