NATO chooses Airbus for major comms contract
NewsMay 30, 2018
BRUSSELS. The NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency has awarded Airbus a contract worth ?40 million ($46.4 million) for the delivery of the first phase of the new NATO Communications Infrastructure Project; the contract also includes options for future phases of the project worth up to ?50 million ($58.02 million).
The NATO Communications Infrastructure project -- which will replace a large part of the NATO General Communications System (NGCS) and cover 72 NATO sites -- will be a major upgrade of wide area network protected IP communications across the NATO command structure, NATO headquarters, and NATO points of presence in NATO member nations.
The project covers delivery by Airbus of upgraded IP access and transport services across different security classifications with increased capacity, quality of service, and traffic engineering capabilities. It also enables NATO unclassified voice services through implementation of voice over IP telephony to replace old telephone switches at 25 sites.
The design review for the NATO project is estimated to be completed in December 2018; the first phase of implementation should be completed by the end of 2019.
