28-29 Oct. 2004

CNAD makes good progress on ground surveillance and missile defence News 25/10/2004 - NATO Second NATO technology and equipment exhibition on “The digital battlefield” Multimedia High resolution photos of the exhibition on “The digital battlefield” Armaments Directors from the 26 NATO countries met in Brussels on 28 and 29 October 2004 to take forward key Alliance armaments projects, including Alliance Ground Surveillance and Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence. The Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) is the senior NATO committee responsible for armaments co-operation, materiel standardisation and defence procurement matters. It brings together the senior officials responsible for armaments procurement from the 26 NATO countries and is at the head of an extensive sub-structure of specialist committees. It reports directly to the North Atlantic Council - NATO's senior decision-making body. The fall meeting of the CNAD focused on efforts to equip the forces of NATO nations with cutting-edge capabilities needed to pursue the war on terrorism and support ongoing operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans. Moving forward on key projects Among other decisions, the CNAD agreed a number of steps leading towards the signing of a contract in 2005 for the design and development of a NATO-owned and operated Alliance Ground Surveillance System. The system, to be operational in 2010, will give NATO ‘eyes in the sky’ needed to rapidly assess the situation on the ground in existing or potential mission areas. The Armaments Directors also agreed to create a programme management office for Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence. It will be responsible for developing a NATO capability to protect deployed troops against ballistic missiles. NATO’s programme of work for defence against terrorism was expanded to include protection against mortar attacks. This work will be led by the Netherlands. Looking to the future In addition to ongoing projects, the role of CNAD in developing network-enabled capabilities to support network-centric warfare was a major topic during the meeting. A special exhibition was held in conjunction with the meeting. Focusing on “The Digital Battlefield”, it brought together a number of companies from Allied and Partner nations to display a wide range of products that directly relate to the modern digital battlefield, such as state-of-the-art battle management systems, recent advances in micro, miniature and vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and the latest developments in digitization of soldiers’ systems.