Allies one step closer to multinational acquisition of Precision Guided Munitions

  • 11 Feb. 2016 -
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  • Last updated: 11 Feb. 2016 13:31

Today eight Allies (Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a Danish-led Smart Defence project on the multinational provision of air-to-ground precision-guided munitions (PGMs).

Left to right: Deputy NATO Secretary General Alexander Vershbow; Steven Vandeput (Minister of Defence, Belgium); Peter Christensen (Minister of Defence, Denmark); Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (Minister of Defence, The Netherlands); Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide (Minister of Defence, Norway); Jose Alberto Azeredo Lopes (Minister of Defence, Portugal); Ambassador Miguel Aguirre de Carcer (Permanent Representative to NATO for Spain); Ambassador Jiri Sedivy (Permanent Representative to NATO for the Czech Republic)

The project was originally launched by Denmark in the margins of the NATO Wales Summit through the signature of a Letter of Intent (LOI) by defence ministers from six NATO member countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Portugal and Spain). Membership expanded last year with Belgium and the Netherlands joining the LOI. With the MOU signing Allies have now institutionalized their cooperation framework. This will enable the participating Allies to address all aspects of their air-to-ground precision-guided munitions (PGM) requirements through multinational cooperation. This will include the procurement and management of munitions inventories

In parallel, the group of Allies has already submitted a Letter of Request to the United States for a first future multinational order under this cooperation framework.  By working together under NATO’s Smart Defence umbrella, the eight Allies that signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will directly respond to one of NATO’s capability priorities.