ISR Eyes
on the ground
Just as the Nato Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) monitors Alliance airspace, the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system will observe what is happening on the earth’s surface. Elly Earls learns more from Matt Roper, chief of joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance at the Nato Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency), and Brigadier General Houston R Cantwell, commander of the Nato AGS Force (NAGSF), about how the system captures and disseminates data and what it will look like when it fully launches in 2024.
I
n February 2021, after close to 20 years of planning, Nato’s Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system reached Initial Operational Capability (IOC). Developed in response to a recognised deficit in Nato’s capacity to provide effective and persistent ground surveillance, the system is now at the stage where its five unmanned aircrafts can fly regular missions to monitor ground operations, collecting information via state-of-the- art radar technology. This data is then processed and disseminated by analysts and passed on to decision makers within Nato command and its member nations.
AGS is only the second project of its kind in
Nato’s history, whereby the alliance itself decided to use its collective fiscal investment to acquire a certain capability. The first was the Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS), a fleet of Boeing E-3A aircraft, which provide the alliance with air surveillance, command and control, battle space management and communications, Nato’s ‘eyes in the sky’.
As its land-based equivalent, AGS was originally envisaged as a mixed fleet of manned vehicles, where operators could exploit the information gathered on board, complemented by unmanned systems that would provide additional coverage. But this solution was deemed unaffordable by the group of Nato nations who ultimately agreed to purchase the capability. As such, it was decided to go down the route of procuring five high-altitude, remotely piloted Global Hawk surveillance aircraft. While the hardware has been provided by Northrop Grumman, a number of other European companies partnered within an industrial joint venture to provide complementary elements of the overall AGS capability, including Airbus and Kongsberg. The IT backbone of the system is the responsibility of the Nato Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency). “Essentially, we provide the communications environment that allows the AGS to operate, including the satellite communications medium via which the aircraft is both flown and controlled from
Defence & Security Systems International /
www.defence-and-security.com 39
NCI Agency
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