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Nato seasparrow project office5/16/2023 ![]() NATO SeaSparrow became a mainstay of ship self-defense for the US Navy and numerous allied navies. ![]() More importantly, several ultimately joined together to craft a defense which came to be known as the NATO SeaSparrow Surface Missile System. During that same period prescient leaders in several NATO capitals directed their attention to the maturing Anti-surface Ship Missile threat. The MDEA initiative focused on the fundamentals, engaging other capitals while minimizing the risk of compromising sensitive US defense technology. Despite the broad array of European security shortcomings, US efforts at the time were largely directed at what was easy to do and non-controversial-one initiative promoted bilateral Master Data Exchange Agreements (MDEA) intended to infuse US defense science and technology into European defense establishments and their re-emergent defense industrial bases. The 1960s environment The 1960s were a time when US Department of Defense executives were very conscious of Europe’s importance as a NATO ally but concerned about the marginal state of NATO European forces and the European defense industrial base. Part one focuses exclusively on the project’s first two decades starting with its origins in the 1960s, during its ground-breaking period, and carrying through into the first half of the 1980s part two will focus on the second two decades of the program starting in the latter half of the 1980s and bring the reader to the present and, part three will peer into the future of cooperative development and production programs by distilling lessons learned by the NATO SeaSparrow community and explore whether those lessons retain their currency in the 21st century. Those elements will be examined in a three part series of which this piece is the first. Its longevity strongly suggests the project embodies elements which could benefit other ongoing and future cooperative programs. ![]() Cevasco The NATO SeaSparrow project, at 41-years, warrants examination because it is the longest-lived cooperative development, production, and in-service support program in which the US Defense Department is a partner. Origins of a Four Decade Success Story NATO SeaSparrow’s founders got it right Programs By Francis M.
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