Operational maturity, technical maturity and improved functionality
ISS (In-service support)
The ISS program reconciles all development projects into main baselines and ensures maintenance of these mature baselines.
The ISS work includes the work done on the earlier PNO project (Premier Niveau Opérationnel, First Operational Level), executed from 2017 until Oct. 2020. It improved quality, stability, redundancy. It was concluded with system acceptance by French Air Force and the decision to deploy ACCS in France.
Transition to Operations (TtO)
DevSecOps-Agile process addressing the key operational needs with sprints delivered and installed on NATO sites to demonstrate system readiness.
Addendum 3 project
With this project, ThalesRaytheonSystems has enhanced system performance with a renewed architecture, provided operators with modernized HMIs and added new functionalities to significantly increase the air command and control capabilities of NATO sites and member nations.
The Addendum 3 contract also relies on new engineering & management methods including End-User involvement during the project lifetime and Agile / Incremental Engineering Practices.
The Addendum 3 provides a data-centric solution on which further digital technologies can be built.
The project is now fully developed and deployment has started.
Operations
Deployment
The ACCS today is deployed in 10 locations, with a number of sites in full operation and other sites in various stages of testing and transition to operations.
Among the operational sites, the Deployable ARS (DARS) based at Poggio Renatico in Italy has been in operational use since 2014. It provides the tactical level of air operations for Surveillance, Identification, Tactical Data Links, Air Mission Control and Air Traffic Control.
Theatre Missile Defense System
The NATO Ballistic Missile Defense Operations Center at Ramstein Germany has been in operation since 2016, following the successful NATO Steadfast Alliance exercise held in April 2016 where the entire BMD system was put to test.
The system is now in maintenance phase with delivery of several capacity increments.
Interoperability
ACCS is designed to ensure NATO interoperability with legacy systems and with other evolving NATO capabilities. ACCS is fully NATO-standard based and compliant with NATO Architecture Framework and non-proprietary formats for data exchange and information sharing.
To create a Joint Environment Picture (JEP), currently the ACCS sites integrates about 400+ sensor sites, and multiple Data Link connections. The JEP information is shared across the ACCS communications network ensuring common situational awareness.