Northrop Grumman, NATO, and industry partners unveiled the first NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance aircraft during a recent ceremony in Palmdale, Calif., according to a June 4 Northrop release. Fifteen nations are contributing to the delivery of the NATO-owned and operated program, which will be comprised of five wide area surveillance Global Hawks. They are: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the United States. However, all 28 NATO nations will take part in long-term support of the program, states the release. “What you see here today is the result of one of the commitments made at the 2012 NATO Summit—to bring this advanced and critical persistent ISR capability to the Alliance to help ensure we can continue to address the range of challenges our member and other allied nations face,” said Erling Wang, chairman of the NATO AGS Management Organization. Sigonella AB, Italy, will be the main operating base for the NATO Global Hawks and the Alliance is in the process of “establishing the necessary ground stations, command and control systems, and training and logistics support services” there, said Jim Edge, NAGSMA general manager.
Since President Donald Trump first unveiled his “Golden Dome” missile defense initiative in late January, much of the focus for it has been focused on space—how the Pentagon may deploy dozens, if not hundreds, of sensors and interceptors into orbit to protect the continental U.S. from missile barrages. But the Air…