NATO will spend 3 billion euros on the program Global Hawk
NATO will spend 3.0 billion euros ($ 3.9 billion) on the purchase and operation of five US unmanned aerial vehicles over the course of 20 in five years to fill the gap that was discovered during the Libyan air operation.
Allies will spend at least 1 a billion euros to purchase Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles from Northrop Grumman. According to an official who did not wish to give his name, the price includes ground support stations, image analysis technologies and operator training. He also believes that the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles, which will be located at the NATO airbase at Sigonella in Sicily, will cost the alliance another 2 billion euros over the next two decades.
While the European Air Force conducted most of the bombing in Libya last year, they relied on unmanned aerial vehicles provided by the United States to identify and hit targets during the campaign.
The NATO defense ministers, after two decades of arguing about its funding, eventually agreed to fund the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program.
Unmanned aerial vehicles will be acquired by common means of thirteen NATO countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United States. Aircraft will be available to all twenty-eight allies, who will bear the costs of their operation. France and the United Kingdom will contribute to the program, mainly by providing their own reconnaissance aircraft.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the AGS program as "a vivid example of resource sharing by the alliance during a time when the economic crisis cuts defense budgets."
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