WAR.WIRE
Lockheed Martin, European groups win contract for NATO missile defence
 PARIS (AFP) Sep 29, 2004
 Several European makers of military air equipment, including EADS, and the US company Lockheed Martin have won a contract from NATO worth 3.0 billion dollars (2.44 billion euros) to design and build a MEADS missile defence system, the MEADS group said on Wednesday.

MEADS (Medium Extended Air Defense System) is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), MBDA-Italia and Lenkflugkorpersysteme (LFK) in Germany.

The contract followed a series of successful system demonstrations, and an agreement between the US and Italy to develop the advanced ground-mobile air and missile defence system, it said.

Germany is expected to sign the agreement following parliamentary procedures later this year.

MEADS is a mobile air defence system designed to replace the Patriot missile systems in the US and Germany, and Nike Hercules systems in Italy.

The United States is providing 58 percent of the finance for the programme, Germany 25.0 percent and Italy 17.0 percent.