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It is a great pleasure for me to join you here today to mark thisimportant milestone in the life of the Alliance Ground Surveillanceprogramme
AGS, as it is known, has been along-standing requirement for our Alliance. When finally fielded,around 2010, it will provide our military forces a greatly neededstand-off airborne ground surveillance capability, much as the NATOAirborne Early Warning and Control currently provides us with an airsurveillance capability today.
The output of this over20 million euro study effort will provide participating NATO nationswith answers to key questions regarding issues, among others, likeinteroperability; command, control, communications, intelligence,surveillance and reconnaissance; and integration of the TransatlanticCo-operative AGS Radar - TCAR sensor onto the AGS manned and unmannedplatforms.
With those answers, by the end of thisyear, we should be ready to move into the more challenging almost halfbillion euro Design and Development phase
At a total cost, estimated to be in the order of 4 billion euros, AGS is the largest acquisition programme in NATO’s history.
I welcome our AGS industrial partners and the National ArmamentsDirectors who have joined us this morning. And I offer a specialwelcome to General Kujat, the Chairman of the Military Committee and along time, ardent supporter of AGS. Of course I would like also towelcome the ladies and gentlemen of the press, who will help us recordtoday’s event.
As we do this, I extend mycongratulations to the Chairman of the CNAD and our Assistant SecretaryGeneral, Mr Marshall Billingslea. I also extend our appreciation to theChairman of the AGS Steering Committee – Major General Alberto Notariand Major General Lars Fynbo - the AGS Support Staff Team Leader, aswell as their supporting staffs, for their invaluable contributions tothis effort.
Could I now call on Mr Alan Doshier,Senior Vice President of Northrop Gumman Integrated Systems and Mr DagWilhemsen, General Manager of NATO Command, Control and ConsultationAgency, to sign the AGS study contract. Mr Tom Enders, Vice Presidentof European Aeronautical Defence and Space, Defence and SecuritySystems will join me in witnessing their signatures.
[After the signatures]
With these signatures, the Transatlantic Industrial Proposed Solutionor TIPS consortium enters into a legally binding contract with NATO toprovide the information nations will need to make their decisions onentering into the much more substantial Design and Development phase,the end of this year or the beginning of the next.
Forthose who have followed AGS over the years, this crucial first contractmoves us one step closer to realizing a capability, which will make asignificant contribution to our Alliance in general and the new NATOResponse Force in particular.
I wish you all the verybest in this and future phases, as we move down the road towardsfielding a NATO-owned and operated AGS capability for NATO.