Industry Consortia Advance NATO AFSC Concepts

Industry teams proposing concepts for a complex, multidomain surveillance system that could replace NATO’s E-3 Sentry airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft in the 2030s have completed a series of risk reduction and feasibility studies for their proposals. 

The completion of the studies, announced by NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) on May 12, is the latest milestone in the concept stage of NATO’s Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC) program. Three contracted consortia analyzed NATO’s requirements and proposed solutions. No details have been revealed about the proposed concepts.

NSPA awarded contracts to three consortia in March 2022. They are the Boeing-led Abiliti group, the Aspaaro consortium led by Airbus and Northrop Grumman, and a third unnamed consortium led by General Atomics.

NSPA officials say subject matter experts from NATO nations and organizations are now assessing the results, and in combination with an analysis of potential capability gaps will inform the decision on the next step to initiate the AFSC program. NATO wants to replace the E-3 Sentry with AFSC in 2035, although it recently undertook a market evaluation of AEW platforms on the market for a so-called Interim-AFSC requirement. This could replace the E-3 sooner, particularly as other E-3 operators including the UK and U.S. have decided to replace the platform with Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail based on the Boeing 737. NSPA officials are understood to be examining information from the manufacturers, although no decision has been made on whether an interim AFSC procurement will proceed. 

Any requirement is expected to call for around eight aircraft for delivery in 2030 if it did. Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Saab all answered the request for information.

NATO describes AFSC as fulfilling military requirements covering surveillance and tactical control in all domains and over a wide range of operational scenarios.

“The current conceptual development gives NATO a comprehensive industry view on emerging technologies, systems and solutions,” said Cagatay Soyer, NSPA’s AFSC project manager.

He said the consortia had proposed the use of uncrewed and autonomous air assets, space-based sensors, advanced tactical networks, multidomain connectivity and military cloud concepts.