BRUSSELS -- At a ceremony on May 29, NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) General Manager Peter Dohmen signed the construction contract for the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) Civil Works project at Sigonella.
Dohmen explained the importance of this milestone and thanked all those involved in achieving it, in particular host nation Italy, who lead the overall co-ordination of the project within NATO.
The contract has been awarded to Astaldi, a major international construction company based in Italy. NSPA was authorised by the NATO Infrastructure Committee to support Italy in the procurement and implementation of this key project, which will deliver the necessary civil works infrastructure to support NATO’s new AGS capability.
The AGS Main Operating Base is being built at the Italian Airbase at Sigonella and is programmed to be finished late summer in 2021.
NATO is acquiring the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system that will give commanders a comprehensive picture of the situation on the ground. NATO’s past and current operations to protect civilians showed how important such a capability is. A group of Allies is acquiring five Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) and the associated ground command and control stations that make up the AGS system. NATO will then operate and maintain them on behalf of all 29 Allies.