At the Warsaw Summit in early July, NATO heads of state and government leaders welcomed the fact that collective alliance expenditure on defence has increased in 2016 for the first time in seven years. On 24 July, the NATO Communication and Information (NCI) Agency announced that, in parallel with decisions taken at the Summit to strengthen collective deterrence and defence, it is planning to invest some €3 billion between 2016 and 2019 in cyber, air and missile defence and advanced software.
NCI Agency General Manager Koen Gijsbers said: “The contracts we are announcing focus on one of the core tasks of the Alliance, to connect and link national forces and capabilities into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. By linking and connecting individual ‘national’ capabilities NATO can do more [than] individual countries could do themselves.”
The first contracts under this initiative have already been put out to tender and further contracts within the next year will include a major €1.5 billion contract for NATO satellite communications, the procurement of advanced software and additional strengthening of Alliance air defence capabilities.
A strong partnership between NATO and industry is a characteristic of the recent past as well as an avowed future intent. In early September more than 1,500 industry representatives will meet with NATO decision-makers at the annual NATO cyber conference to discuss current trends and next generation solutions.
“The ingenuity and creativity of our private sector has always been a source of strength for NATO. We, as an Alliance, have been able to maintain our technological edge over our adversaries for 67 years because the innovative capacity of our private sector is unparalleled. Today’s technological change is driven by Industry and as NATO we are engaging Industry early on to ensure we tap into that creativity. NATO will only be resilient if we embrace and can do continuous, rapid innovation,” Gijsbers commented.
NCI Agency General Manager Koen Gijsbers said: “The contracts we are announcing focus on one of the core tasks of the Alliance, to connect and link national forces and capabilities into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. By linking and connecting individual ‘national’ capabilities NATO can do more [than] individual countries could do themselves.”
The first contracts under this initiative have already been put out to tender and further contracts within the next year will include a major €1.5 billion contract for NATO satellite communications, the procurement of advanced software and additional strengthening of Alliance air defence capabilities.
A strong partnership between NATO and industry is a characteristic of the recent past as well as an avowed future intent. In early September more than 1,500 industry representatives will meet with NATO decision-makers at the annual NATO cyber conference to discuss current trends and next generation solutions.
“The ingenuity and creativity of our private sector has always been a source of strength for NATO. We, as an Alliance, have been able to maintain our technological edge over our adversaries for 67 years because the innovative capacity of our private sector is unparalleled. Today’s technological change is driven by Industry and as NATO we are engaging Industry early on to ensure we tap into that creativity. NATO will only be resilient if we embrace and can do continuous, rapid innovation,” Gijsbers commented.