Defense company L3Harris, along with five other companies on its team, announced that it will bid on the Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC) program to replace NATO’s Airborne Warning and Control System (AWCS) by 2035.
The team under L3Harris includes defense companies Hensoldt from Germany, Jacobs from the United Kingdom, General Dynamics from Canada and Italy, V from Canada, and Viasat from the United States.
Vice President of L3Harris International Charles R. “CR” Davi, said that the integrated team, “with collaboration and innovation at the heart of everything we do,” harnesses “the strengths of world-leading experts and leverages decades of diverse experience across all domains.”
The team will develop what is called a “system-of-systems” for surveillance and control capabilities. This type of system “provides better intelligence and more responsive control by enabling sensors and systems to share information in air, ground, maritime or space.”
NATO’s AFSC Program
Launched in 2016 at the Summit in Warsaw, NATO’s AFSC program was launched to find a replacement for the aging Airborne Early Warning and Control System in service for 36 years.
The project is currently in its second phase, where contracts “to develop and analyze the feasibility of potential concepts that will meet NATO’s future requirements” will be awarded. The results of this stage will be the technical concept that will form the basis of transitioning to Program Establishment.
