NATO Business Opportunity: Air Command and Control Information System Increment 2 (AirC2IS Inc2) Planner

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) intends to issue an Invitation for Bid (IFB) for Provision of the Air Command and Control Information System Increment 2 (AirC2IS Inc2) Planner as the future NATO Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) and Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) Planning capability.

NCIA will be hosting an Industry Day in the week of 09 March 2026 on Webex. To participate, please indicate your interest by email to

CO-115768-AirC2ISInc2@ncia.nato.int 

stating the name of your firm, telephone number, e-mail address, and company POC. Please express your interest as soon as practicable and NLT 04 March 2026.

To bid on this project, potential U.S. prime contractors must 1) maintain a professionally active facility (office, factory, laboratory, etc.) within the United States, 2) be pre-approved for participation in NATO Competitive Procurement (NCP), 3) be issued a Declaration of Eligibility (DOE) by the Department of Commerce (DOC), and 4) register with NCIA’s eProcurement tool, Neo: https://www.ncia.nato.int/business/procurement/neo-eprocurement 

The reference for the IFB is IFB-CO-115768-AIRC2ISINC2 and all correspondence concerning the IFB should include this reference.

SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENT

The full AirC2IS Inc2 project will provide a system to enhance the BMD planning capabilities for the Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) mission, through the delivery of a unified, integrated tool suite composed of a Planner including AirC2IS functional services and a Defence Design Analysis (D2A) simulation-based application.

The present project’s scope consists of the capability’s Planner portion. The AirC2IS Inc2 Planner project will deliver the full BMD & IAMD Planning capability that aligns with a modular, extensible and scalable architecture, and it will support a gradual transition from the current AirC2IS Increment 1 (AirC2IS Inc1) system without degradation.

The project is structured into three distinct phases, each of which is estimated to last for one year:

Phase 1 will deliver a Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) based Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Planner, enhanced to deliver a subset of AirC2IS Inc2 functionality along with an efficient and cost-effective framework. It shall include as a minimum:

-    UI Framework to ensure a consistent, responsive and user-friendly UI across all the capabilities in the AirC2IS Inc2 services.

-    Data Framework to ensure data is processed, stored, shared and managed efficiently among AirC2IS Inc2 services, as well as with external systems. This framework also requires the delivery and maintenance of a common and extensible data model.

-    Application Framework to enable standardized way to develop and deploy applications including common functions (such as logging, alert management, etc.) and software architecture patterns.

-    Security Framework to align with NATO Security Policy and Directives.

Phases 2 and 3 will deliver the System Integration of the AirC2IS Application Software Layer as follows:

-    AirC2IS Application Software Layer will be composed of software components that provide the domain-specific functionality. The System Integrator will implement these components as software services.

-    The components may be provided as Purchaser Furnished Property to the System Integrator as COTS for integration, or they may need to be modified by the System Integrator prior to integration in case the component(s) does not deliver the full-service functionality.

The major deliverables of each phase are as follows:

Phase 1: Delivery of the MVP Planner, modified to include user defined features.

Phase 2: Delivery and implementation on the Full-Scale Planner and system integration of prioritized operational services for the BMD and IAMD planning.

Phase 3: Delivery of the full BMD and IAMD planning and simulation capability, and execution of the transition from the AirC2 IS Inc1 system.

Procurement Approach

Phase 1 MVP Planner Contract will be awarded to one company through an IFB with Best Value Competitive Dialogue evaluation methodology. The Phase 2 and 3 System Integration Contracts will be awarded on Sole Source basis to the winning company.

BECOMING ELIGIBLE TO BID

NCP requires that the U.S. Government issue a DOE for potential U.S. prime contractors interested in this project. Before the U.S. Government can do so, however, the U.S. Government must approve the U.S. firm for participation in NCP.  U.S. firms are approved for NCP on a facility-by-facility basis. 

The U.S. NCP application is a one-time application.  The application requires supporting documentation in the form of 1) a company resume or capability statement indicating contracts completed as a prime contractor and 2) an annual report or set of financial documents indicating compilation, review, or audit by an independent CPA.

The U.S. Government continues to accept the legacy NATO International Competitive Bidding (ICB) application for participation in NCP. U.S. firms can download a copy of the legacy ICB application from the following website:

https://www.bis.gov/about-bis/bis-leadership-and-offices/SIES/business-opportunities-nato 

DOC is the U.S. Government agency that approves NCP applications. Please submit to the email address provided your application and supporting documentation (as attachments). If your firm is interested in a specific NCP project at this time, please also include the following in the TEXT of your email:

- the title and/or solicitation number of the project
- the name/phone/email of the company employee who should receive the bid documents

After approval of your one-time NCP application, DOC will then know to follow up by issuing a DOE for the project.  DOC will transmit the DOE to the NATO contracting agency.  

IMPORTANT DATES:

Request a DOE (and, for firms new to NCP, submit the completed NCP application): 13 March 2026

NCIA distributes the IFB (planned): 31 March 2026

Bid closing (anticipated): 05 May 2026

Contract Award (estimated): 30 September 2026