NATO strategies to spend 3 billion euros ($3.24 billion) to advance its satellite and computer technology over the next three years as the Western military alliance acclimates to new threats, a senior official claimed.
In search of deter hackers, and other threats, containing Iranian missiles, the investments underscore NATO’s recognition that conflicts are gradually fought on computer networks as well as in the air, sea and land.
A senior authorized at the NATO Communications and Information Agency assumed the plans include a 1.7-billion-euro deal in satellite communications to better support troops and ships positioned across the alliance, as well as helping the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones.
It was not directly clear if NATO allies would fund a new military communications satellite to be propelled into space or if an increase in broadband capacity could be gained from current U.S. and other allied satellites.
Non-NATO member Japan propelled its first military communications satellite in January. The proposals, for which some backing must still be accepted by NATO governments, also envisage expenditure about 800 million euros on the computer systems that aid command air and missile defenses told.
Seventy-one million euros will go to enlightening the protection of NATO’s 32 main locations from cyber attacks.
NATO says it has seen a five-fold surge in suspicious events on its networks in the past three years, while Russian group APT28 is answerable by Western intelligence for the hacking of the U.S. Democratic Party during last year’s U.S. election.
NATO officials have expressed that they suspect Russia sponsors bouts against their networks before major summits. Another 180 million euros are to be consumed to deliver more secure mobile communications for alliance soldiers in the field.
NATO will present its wants in detail at a conference in Ottawa in April and then begin debut the bidding process.
It is likely to entice major Western defense contracts, including Airbus Group, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin Corp, the official thought, in part because “there cannot be content that does not derive from NATO nations.”
NATO rules prohibit Russian or Chinese suppliers unless there is an exact need that allied companies cannot deliver.