By Tayfun Ozberk, Defense News,
The Turkish engineering firm STM has won two tenders to modernize NATO’s intelligence infrastructure, which is maintained by the NATO Communications and Information Agency, the company announced Jan. 28.
The work is meant to benefit the gathering, directing, processing and distributing of intelligence for use by NATO and its decision-makers. This modernization effort stands as one of the largest software development projects assigned by the alliance to a Turkish entity.
The modernization effort is scheduled for completion in three and a half years. The company didn’t share information about the value of the INTEL-FS deals, but according to an announcement by the NCI Agency, their cumulative worth is about €31.5 million (U.S. $34.2 million).
The NCI Agency awarded two deals to STM after evaluating commercial and technical proposals received from several software companies in NATO member states. Neither STM nor the NCI Agency responded to a request for information about other competitors in the bidding process.
The projects are officially named Intelligence Functional Services-Spiral 2 and Ballistic Missile Defense Functions in INTEL-FS. STM’s coding efforts will aid NATO command posts in guiding the amassing, processing, disseminating and exploitation of intelligence data. The software that STM is to update and expand will be used by all NATO commands and military bases to control the flow of intelligence.
STM General Manager Ozgür Güleryüz said the project represents a significant success for Turkey in the field of software exports, adding that this isn’t the first time the company has completed projects for NATO.
“INTEL-FS2 is one of the largest export projects that [Turkey] has ever received from NATO related to software development,” Güleryüz said. “Building on our capabilities in software development, we will now be ensuring the technological transformation of NATO’s intelligence infrastructure. Through the INTEL-FS2 project, the NATO commands will have access to all kinds of intelligence data with modern user interfaces providing a high user experience. The entire project will be carried out by Turkish engineers. We established our project team of about 100 experts.”
