NATO Integrated Air Defense System

The NATO Integrated Air Defense System (short: NATINADS) is a command and control network combining radars and other facilities spread throughout the NATO alliance's air defence forces. It formed in the mid-1950s and became operational in 1962 as NADGE. It has been constantly upgraded since its formation, notably with the integration of Airborne Early Warning aircraft in the 1970s. The United Kingdom maintained its own network, but was fully integrated with the network since the introduction of the Linesman/Mediator network in the 1970s. Similarly, the German network maintained an independent nature through GEADGE.

Development

Development was approved by the NATO Military Committee in December 1955. The system was to be based on four air defense regions (ADRs) coordinated by SACEUR (Supreme Allied Commander Europe). Starting from 1956 early warning coverage was extended across Western Europe using 18 radar stations. This part of the system was completed by 1962. Linked to existing national radar sites, the coordinated system was called the NATO Air Defence Ground Environment (NADGE).

From 1960 NATO countries agreed to place all their air defence forces under the command of SACEUR in the event of war. These forces included command & control (C2) systems, radar installations, and Surface-to-Air (SAM) missile units as well as interceptor aircraft.

By 1972 NADGE was converted into NATINADS consisting of 84 radar sites and associated Control Reporting Centres (CRC) and in the 1980s the Airborne Early Warning / Ground Environment Integration Segment (AEGIS) upgraded the NATINADS with the possibility to integrate the AWACS radar picture and all of its information into its visual displays. (NOTE: This AEGIS is not to be confused with the U.S.Navy AEGIS, a shipboard fire control radar and weapons system.) AEGIS processed the information through Hughes H5118ME computers, which replaced the H3118M computers installed at NADGE sites in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

NATINADS ability to handle data increased with faster clock rates. The H5118M computer had a staggering 1 megabyte of memory and could handle 1.2 million instructions per second while the former model had a memory of only 256 kilobytes and a clock speed of 150,000 instructions per seconds.

NATINADS/AEGIS were complemented, in West Germany by the German Air Defence Ground Environment (GEADGE), an updated radar network adding the southern part of Germany to the European system and Coastal Radar Integration System (CRIS), adding data links from Danish coastal radars.

In order to counter the hardware obsolescence, during the mid-1990s NATO started the AEGIS Site Emulator (ASE) program allowing the NATINADS/AEGIS sites to replace the proprietary hardware (the 5118ME computer and the various operator consoles IDM-2, HMD-22, IDM-80) with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) servers and workstations.

In the first years 2000, the initial ASE capability was expanded with the possibility to run, thanks to the new hardware power, multiple site emulators on the same hardware, so the system was renamed into Multi-AEGIS Site Emulator (MASE). The NATO system designed to replace MASE in the near future is the Air Command and Control System (ACCS).

Because of changing politics, NATO expanding and financial crises most European (NATO) countries are trying to cut defence budgets; as a direct result, many obsolete and outdated NATINADS facilities are phased out earlier. As of 2013, operational NATO radar sites in Europe are as follows:

Allied Air Command

Allied Air Command (AIRCOM) is the central command of all NATO air forces on the European continent. The command is based at Ramstein Air Base in Germany and has two subordinate commands in Germany and Spain. The Royal Canadian Air Force and United States Air Force fall under command of the Canadian/American North American Aerospace Defense Command.

• Allied Air Command, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany
  • CAOC Torrejón, at Torrejón Air Base, Spain - responsible for the airspace South of the Alps
    • Albania: Air Surveillance Centre, at Tirana International Airport
    • Bulgaria: Air Sovereignty Operations Centre, in Sofia
    • Croatia: Airspace Surveillance Centre, in Podvornica
    • Greece: Air Operations Centre, at Larissa Air Base
    • Italy: National Air and Space Operations Centre, in Poggio Renatico
    • Montenegro: Air Surveillance and Reporting Centre, at Podgorica Airport
    • Portugal: Control and Reporting Centre, in Monsanto
    • Romania: Air Operations Centre, in Balotești
    • Slovenia: Airspace Surveillance and Control Centre, in Brnik
    • Spain: Air Operations Centre, in Torrejón
      • Central Command and Control Group, at Torrejón Air Base
      • Northern Command and Control Group, at Zaragoza Air Base
    • Turkey: Control and Reporting Centre, in Ahlatlıbel
  • CAOC Uedem, in Uedem, Germany - responsible for the airspace North of the Alps
    • Baltic Air Surveillance Network - Regional Airspace Surveillance Coordination Centre, in Karmėlava
      • Estonia: Air Operations Control Centre, at Ämari Air Base
      • Latvia: Air Operations Centre, at Lielvārde Air Base
      • Lithuania: Airspace Control Centre, in Karmėlava
    • Belgium: Control and Reporting Centre, at Beauvechain Air Base
    • Czech Republic: Control and Reporting Centre, in Hlavenec
    • Denmark: Control and Reporting Centre, at Karup Air Base
    • France: Control and Reporting Centre, at Mont Verdun Air Base
    • Germany: Air Operations Centre, in Uedem
      • Control and Reporting Centre 2, in Erndtebrück
      • Control and Reporting Centre 3, in Schönewalde
    • Hungary: Air Operations Centre, in Veszprém
    • Iceland: Control and Reporting Centre, at Keflavik Air Base
    • Luxembourg: airspace controlled by Belgium's Control and Reporting Centre, at Beauvechain Air Base
    • Netherlands: Control and Reporting Centre, in Nieuw-Milligen
    • Norway: Control and Reporting Centre, in Sørreisa
    • Poland: Air Operations Centre, in Warsaw-Pyry
      • 22nd Command and Control Centre, in Osówiec
      • 32nd Command and Control Centre, in Balice
    • Slovakia: Air Operations Centre, at Sliač Air Base
    • United Kingdom: Control and Reporting Centre, at RAF Boulmer

Radar stations

Albania

Rinas

Mida