Alliance Surveillance Program Morphs Again

Apr 8, 2011 By Robert Wall AviationWeek.com

NATO may one day field a wide-area, high-altitude ground surveillance system, but it will not be for the mission or of the scale once envisioned. The status of the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program will be discussed this week as NATO officials try to put the effort on a firm path toward the award of a production contract. AGS was born almost two decades ago in the wake of the 1991 Persian Gulf war when a prototype U.S. Air Force Joint Stars aircraft was used to track Iraqi armored columns. In the interim, governments have squabbled over the technical approach—fixed-wing widebodies, narrowbodies, business jets and helicopters have been in the mix—industrial participation and basing plans. Now, as NATO tries to orchestrate a military campaign against Libya, the alliance is once more forced to rely on member states for ground surveillance: in this case, U.S. Air Force E-8C J-Stars and Royal Air Force Sentinel R1 fleets for high-performance radar information. NATO itself remains years away from fielding its own capability.