BRUSSELS — A Lockheed Martin UK-led consortium has unveiled a Ground-Based Air Defense (GBAD) concept for NATO, envisioned as a plug-and-play network that enables agnostic data sharing and interoperability among national assets dispersed across the alliance.
The proposal by the British branch of the American aerospace company, alongside Leonardo, MBDA, and Indra, is part of the second phase of NATO’s Modular GBAD program to counter aerial threats at very short- to medium-range. The overall project, led by the alliance Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), was launched in 2023 with a value of roughly €20 million ($23.3 million).
According to Richard Turner, business development manager for C2 and complex systems at Lockheed Martin UK, the envisioned common architecture capability would enable continuous coordination and integration of member states’ legacy systems and future assets.
“There is no common thing currently, especially within GBAD, maybe apart from Link 16, that does connect the vast majority of NATO nations, where a nation with system A operating alongside another nation with system B can seamlessly operate and share data,” Turner told reporters Wednesday at a briefing here.
Nations participating in the GBAD program include Romania, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and the UK, with the US taking an observer role. These countries operate a mix of national air defense systems ranging from Patriot to SAMP/T, which are not always compatible during joint deployments.
While company representatives were tight-lipped about the exact technical details of their offering, they explained that a flexible, software-based system would allow participating member-nations to connect their different sensors to another nation’s command nodes, or individual systems.
Ignacio Ojeda González-Posada, senior manager of business development for air defense at Spain’s Indra, argued for the need to build a mesh of high- and low-end sensors and effectors, similar to that proposed under the US’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative.
He said Wednesday that the challenge is not so much integrating expensive assets such as the IRIS-T air defense system into a network — which is relatively easy — rather it is incorporating cheaper ones, such as small anti-drone systems or acoustic detectors, which often operate independently or do not feed into a common tactical picture.
A Lengthy Process
The first phase of the program was completed throughout 2025 and focused on system architecture. During this period, NSPA awarded GBAD concept studies to five companies and consortia: Airbus, Aselsan, Lockheed Martin UK, Raytheon, and Thales LAS. After producing their blueprint, Lockheed, Raytheon, and Airbus were selected by the agency and the program’s participants to move forward into the second phase to address modularity. This new phase will last twelve months, during which the research will be developed in more detail, including sophisticated modelling to replicate connectivity.
Announcing selection for the modularity phase in April, Lockheed Martin UK stated that the aim of joint collaboration is to “use the team’s collective experience to provide the Modular GBAD participating Nations with proven and innovative solutions and technologies in support of NATO Modular GBAD capabilities.” A third stage will follow, in which the most promising proposal will be chosen to advance to the integration of emerging technologies.
A similar software system, dubbed Delta, is already employed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It has been described as the “digital brain” of the country’s military, integrating multi-domain equipment and data from drones, satellites, and launchers into a common network that serves as an interactive map for commanders.
When asked whether the alliance is playing catch-up by only developing such a capability now, the company representatives pointed out that their proposal is somewhat different and that the industry does not set a country’s priorities.
“Delta is a fantastic and very good tool, but it is not a secret … Ukrainians are knocking down about 50% of their own drones before they cross the border because they are using cheaper effectors that are not fully integrated in their sensors. That’s one of the problems we want to tackle with this [GBAD concept],” González-Posada said.
According to a recent report from Business Insider, friendly fire is one of the largest causes of equipment losses in Ukraine, where it has become increasingly difficult for forces to distinguish whether the enormous amount of drones are their own or those of their foes.