NATO BMD

Raytheon and EADS subsidiary Astrium have teamed up to compete for a $91 million systems engineering and integration contract for NATO's Ballistic Missile Defense Program.

"This transatlantic team has a proven, successful track record supporting national and NATO missile defense," Yannick Devouassoux, Astrium's Head of Missile Defense and NATO programs, said in a joint Raytheon-Astrium statement. "The Astrium-Raytheon team will provide sound, innovative, and cost-effective solutions to help develop NATO's future ballistic missile defense capability."

The statement further reads:

The NATO BMD System Engineering and Integration contract will establish the contractual requirements for territorial defense, while helping create a NATO command and control network architecture for Europe. It will also provide a test infrastructure for the new architecture.

"With more than 30 years' experience in ballistic missiles development and production, ballistic battle analysis, and threat modeling, Astrium is a leader in European missile defense," said George Mavko, Raytheon Missile Systems' Director of European Missile Defense. "Combined with Raytheon's decades of experience in ballistic missile defense interceptors, radars and space sensors, this partnership will provide Europe the best, most affordable missile defense protection."

Once awarded, the contract will call for a seven-year period of performance with an estimated value of 67.6 million Euros (US $91 million).