Belgium signs agreement to purchase air defence systems to protect Belgian airspace

Belgium plans to purchase a total of 10 air defence systems through the Netherlands, 9 of which are intended to protect Belgian airspace and one for Luxembourg, costing around 2.5 billion euros in total.

‘I am very pleased to announce today that we will be signing an agreement with the Netherlands to acquire more air defence systems,’ Belgian defence minister Theo Francken (Flemish nationalist) said. ‘We are opting for NASAMS, a Norwegian defence system, which should protect our airspace.’

Francken also wants more focus on anti-drone detection systems. According to the defence minister, things could move very quickly now. ‘I will present a dossier to cabinet within two weeks proposing to purchase more and activate the systems before March next year. So things will move quickly.’

One million per missile

The Norwegian NASAMS air defence system is effective, but expensive. According to reports, it can successfully shoot down up to 94 per cent of incoming projectiles. However, the performance of NASAMS comes at a considerable price.

NASAMS is an advanced, modular system with multiple components (radars, command posts, launchers and communication systems). Each of these components is technologically advanced and very expensive to develop and produce.

The (American) missiles themselves are also very expensive. A single missile can easily cost hundreds of thousands to over a million euros, depending on the variant. When you consider that a launcher can hold six missiles and there are multiple launchers per battery, the ammunition costs quickly add up.

Belgium and Luxembourg are paying 250 million euros per battery for the NASAMS systems, totalling 2.5 billion euros, but that does not include the expensive missiles.

During a NATO exercise in Norway, VRT News reporter Bert De Vroey saw the NASAMS air defence system in action. The weapon system did what it was supposed to do: shoot incoming projectiles out of the sky. However, there were moments when “not everything went according to plan” and “sometimes the weapon systems malfunctioned”, although this may have been other systems than the NASAMS.

Good for the Belgian defence industry

The agreement will also benefit the Belgian defence industry, more specifically the Walloon company FN Herstal. The company is said to have negotiated with the American manufacturer RTX to secure agreement to produce AMRAAM missiles, which are used by the Norwegian air defence system, in Norway.

However, it will take some time before production can start. In the meantime, Belgium can reportedly “borrow” missiles from Poland.