Indra estimates revenues of around €350 M for its participation in the Transatlantic Industrial Proposed Solution (TIPS) consortium chosen by NATO to develop and launch the AGS surveillance and recognition system. The consortium is completed by EADS, Galileo Avionica (Italy), General Dynamics (Canada), Northrop Grumman (US) and Thales (France). The program will last, initially, until 2012 and is expected to be put in force once the contract is signed in the spring of 2005.
The Allied Ground Surveillance (AGS) is a NATO program, which has the objective of developing a powerful system to watch over ground battlefields. It is based on several command and control centres on board air platforms from which ground operations are directed, as well as several ground control stations (main operating base, MOB) and advanced airborne stations near to the field of operation.
This system of systems includes the sensors that transmit the information of the ground and the command and control centres (networks to communicate and process the information that permit the sending of this information and concentrate it in order to present it to the high commands and deal with their pertinent instructions). The main sensor is a synthetic opening radar with advanced technology, capable of long distance detection and identification of vehicles and troop movements in congested areas. This radar will be developed in a parallel program, called Transatlantic Cooperative Radar (TCAR), in which Indra will also participate with the other TIPS’ companies.
TIPS is integrated by reference companies representing different technologies and equipment necessary to tune the AGS system, a basic tool for NATO’s surveillance, recognition and security objectives. The six lead companies in the consortium expect to subcontract around 80 companies from the 26 nations that belong to NATO.