“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,” Richard Turner, business development manager for C2 and complex systems at Lockheed Martin UK, told reporters in Brussels.
Lockheed Martin UK-led consortium and partner vendors
The proposal unveiled in Brussels is led by Lockheed Martin UK and includes Italy’s Leonardo, MBDA, and Spain’s Indra. It is one of five concept studies originally awarded by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) in the program’s first phase. The five winners of those initial concept studies were Airbus, Aselsan, Lockheed Martin UK, Raytheon, and Thales LAS. After producing their blueprints, NSPA participants selected Lockheed, Raytheon, and Airbus to proceed into the program’s second, modularity-focused phase.
Modular GBAD program: phases, timeline, and funding
NATO’s Modular Ground-Based Air Defense (GBAD) program began in 2023 under the NSPA with a value of roughly €20 million ($23.3 million). The first phase, completed during 2025, concentrated on system architecture. The program now enters a twelve-month modularity phase that will develop the research in more detail and include “sophisticated modelling to replicate connectivity.” After that work, a third stage will follow in which the most promising proposal will be chosen to advance to integration of emerging technologies. Announcing selection for the modularity phase in April, Lockheed Martin UK said the aim 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.”
Technical concept: a plug-and-play, software-based mesh
The consortium’s concept is described as a plug-and-play network that enables agnostic data sharing and interoperability among national assets dispersed across the alliance. Company representatives said the envisioned common architecture capability would allow continuous coordination and integration of member states’ legacy systems and future assets, enabling participating nations to connect different sensors to another nation’s command nodes or individual systems through a flexible, software-based approach.
Indra’s senior manager of business development for air defense, Ignacio Ojeda González-Posada, urged building “a mesh of high- and low-end sensors and effectors,” comparing the idea to the US’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative. He emphasised that the harder problem is not integrating high-end systems such as IRIS-T — “which is relatively easy” — but bringing cheaper systems like small anti-drone systems or acoustic detectors into a common tactical picture when they often operate independently.
The Lockheed-led team’s concept was compared in the briefing to an existing system used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. A similar software system, dubbed Delta, has been described in the source material as the “digital brain” of that military, integrating multi-domain equipment and data from drones, satellites, and launchers into a common network serving as an interactive map for commanders. On Delta, González-Posada said: “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].” Company representatives also noted their proposal is different and that industry does not set a country’s priorities.
Participating nations, systems, and the US observer role
Nations involved in the Modular GBAD program are Romania, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and the UK. The United States is participating in an observer role. The participating countries operate a mix of national air defence systems, the source notes, “ranging from Patriot to SAMP/T,” which are not always compatible during joint deployments — a practical driver for a modular, interoperable architecture.
What this means for technologists, procurement officials, and military users
- Technologists and systems integrators: will be asked to deliver a software-first, agnostic architecture that can stitch together high-end radars and launchers with low-cost sensors and anti-drone effectors, and to produce the “sophisticated modelling to replicate connectivity” described for the modularity phase.
- Procurement officials and programme managers (NSPA and participating nations): will oversee a multi-stage selection process that began in 2023 with roughly €20 million in program value, and must evaluate modularity-phase results before deciding which proposal advances to integrate emerging technologies.
- Commanders and operational users in participating militaries: face the practical challenge the consortium highlights — ensuring that a future common architecture not only links expensive systems but also incorporates cheaper, distributed sensors so they feed into a common tactical picture and reduce misidentification at scale.
The Lockheed Martin UK-led concept frames interoperability as a technical puzzle — and a collective procurement exercise — rather than a single-vendor product. The modularity phase now under way will test whether a software-centred, plug-and-play mesh can bridge a long-standing gap between legacy systems and the growing number of low-cost sensors on the battlefield. The program’s next twelve months of modelling and experimentation, followed by the third-stage selection, will determine if the concept can move from blueprint to an interoperable reality.
