Northrop Grumman has been awarded a five-year contract from the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) in support of the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) capability.

According to an August 11 release the contract, designed to support fleet readiness, covers operations, maintenance and lifecycle sustainment of NATO’s fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles, air vehicle mission command and control stations, and trainer.

Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will provide full lifecycle sustainment including repairs, onsite maintenance and operations support to NAGSF at Sigonella Air Base, Sigonella, Italy.

“The signature of this contract with Northrop Grumman marks another major milestone towards the in-service support phase of the NATO AGS core system. It will enable NSPA, in its role as life cycle manager of the system, to sustain this key capability on behalf of the Alliance,” said NSPA general manager, Peter Dohmen.

The NATO AGS system of systems, which recently achieved initial operating capability, is comprised of five RQ-4D aircraft, which is based on Northrop Grumman’s wide area surveillance Global Hawk, ground and support segments, and sensor technologies.