Lockheed Martin UK presents team competing for NATO Modular GBAD project

Modular GBAD's C2, sensors, and effectors could create a mesh of high end systems like IRIS-T (pictured) and low end systems like UAVs and acoustics. (Diehl Defence)

Lockheed Martin UK presented its team competing for the NATO Modular Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD) project at the company's Digital Engagement Center (DEC) in Brussels on 3 June 2026. The team is led by Lockheed Martin and includes MBDA, Leonardo, and Indra.

Modular GBAD is one of NATO's air and missile defence high visibility projects and was launched through the signing of a letter of intent (LoI) on the margins of the October 2020 NATO defence ministers' meeting. The Luxembourg-based NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) supervisory board approved the establishment of the Modular GBAD support partnership on 1 June 2023. The partnership was established by 10 NATO nations that signed the Modular GBAD memorandum of understanding (MoU): Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK. Romania joined in May 2025.

After receiving bids for its request for proposal (RfP) released in November 2024, the NSPA awarded five outline agreements in May 2025 to Airbus Defence and Space, Aselsan, Raytheon, and Thales, in addition to Lockheed Martin UK, to support the Modular GBAD concept stage with system architecture studies and technical services.

After the completion and evaluation of concept study 1 deliverables, which focused on establishing initial system architecture foundations, the NSPA selected Airbus Defence and Space, Lockheed Martin UK, and Raytheon in April 2026 to continue working on Modular GBAD, advancing to concept study 2 focused on modularity solutions.