NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS)

The NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program provides the Alliance with a complete, integrated airborne ground surveillance capability using five RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40 aircraft equipped with advanced radar sensors, along with ground stations for real-time data exploitation and dissemination, enabling persistent wide-area terrestrial and maritime surveillance in all weather conditions. It achieved initial operational capability on 15 February 2021 and full handover to NATO on 31 March 2022, and is now fully operational under the NATO Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Force (NISRF). From a defense-intelligence perspective, AGS offers critical strategic significance by delivering near real-time situational awareness to commanders for troop protection, counter-terrorism, border security, crisis management, and humanitarian operations, enhancing NATO's JISR interoperability and networked warfare capabilities.