Northrop Grumman Corporation and Airbus Defence & Space, together with seven industrial players, have established ASPAARO, the Atlantic Strategic Partnership for Advanced All-domain Resilient Operations. ASPAARO will bid to undertake the Risk Reduction and Feasibility Studies (RRFS) for the NATO Support and Procurement Agency as part of the Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC) programme, the companies announced.
The AFSC programme is expected to provide the Alliance’s future tactical surveillance, command and control capabilities after the current Airborne Warning and Control System fleet reaches the end of its service life in 2035.
Following the delivery of a High-level Technical Concept in 2020 by three of the team members (Airbus, Lockheed Martin and MDA Ltd.), the ASPAARO team, apart from Northrop Grumman and Airbus, includes:
- Lockheed Martin (US)
- BAE Systems (UK)
- KONGSBERG (Norway)
- MDA (Canada)
- GMV (Spain)
- Exence (Poland)
- IBM (US)
A decision on the contract award for the Risk Reduction and Feasibility Studies for NATO AFSC is expected in 2022.
JH
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