BRUSSELS — A Lockheed Martin UK-led consortium has unveiled a Ground-Based Air Defense (GBAD) concept for NATO, envisioned as a plug-and-play network that enables agnostic data sharing and interoperability among national assets dispersed across the alliance.
The proposal by the British branch of the American aerospace company, alongside Leonardo, MBDA, and Indra, is part of the second phase of NATO’s Modular GBAD program to counter aerial threats at very short- to medium-range. The overall project, led by the alliance Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), was launched in 2023 with a value of roughly €20 million ($23.3 million).
According to Richard Turner, business development manager for C2 and complex systems at Lockheed Martin UK, the envisioned common architecture capability would enable continuous coordination and integration of member states’ legacy systems and future assets.
“There is no common thing currently, especially within GBAD, maybe apart from Link 16, that does connect the vast majority of NATO nations, where a nation with system A operating alongside another nation with system B can seamlessly operate and share data,” Turner told reporters Wednesday at a briefing here.
