Europe
Blue Dome: Belgium buys NASAMS, radars and 20 Rheinmetall Skyranger 30 through the Netherlands – when the first systems arrive
Belgium has presented its Blue Dome ground-based air defence architecture and signed three programme agreements with the Netherlands for NASAMS launchers, Thales GM200 radars and Skyranger 30 guns, with deliveries from 2027.
Belgium is rebuilding ground-based air defence with a programme it calls Blue Dome and is basing it on three systems it is buying through the Netherlands. On Monday, November 9, at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, the Belgian Ministry of Defence presented the new architecture for short and medium-range air defence and announced the re-establishment of the 51st Squadron. At the same event Belgium and the Netherlands signed three programme agreements for NASAMS launchers, GM200 MM/C radars and Skyranger 30 guns.
The numbers of the plan: 14 Thales GM200 MM/C radars, 10 NASAMS launchers, 20 Skyranger 30 and 54 command vehicles. The radars detect, identify and track aerial targets, the NASAMS cover short and medium distances against drones, cruise missiles, helicopters and fighters, while the Skyranger 30s take on very close defence against drones and other low-flying targets. The first systems will be delivered gradually from 2027.
The Belgians explain the choice by their country’s map: ports, NATO’s headquarters, SHAPE and the EU institutions are on Belgian soil. Blue Dome will be integrated into NATO’s integrated air and missile defence system (NATINAMDS). The core of the new capability will be the 51st Squadron, which the Air Component reactivated at the Beauvechain base.
The Netherlands’ role and the Rheinmetall contract
The Hague does not act only as an intermediary in the purchase. The Dutch Ministry of Defence notes that Belgium is getting systems identical to those bought by the Dutch armed forces, so that the two countries have a common basis for training, support and maintenance. Belgian personnel have already been trained on NASAMS in the Netherlands, Belgium will take part in the production and receipt of the radars and will join their international user group. For the Dutch side the signature was given by Vice Admiral Jan Willem Hartman, commander of the Defence Materiel and IT Command.
The same day Rheinmetall announced the contract for the 20 Skyranger 30, which will be mounted on a hooklift platform to protect Belgian territory and critical infrastructure from fixed positions. The value of the package, with logistic support, reaches several hundred million euros and deliveries begin in late 2028. The German company recalls that 50 years ago it delivered 36 Gepard air defence tanks to the Belgian army, the self-propelled 35 mm anti-aircraft system that became known in Ukraine for shooting down drones.
“The rapid technological evolution of aerial threats requires fully integrated state-of-the-art systems,” said Roman Kehne, head of Rheinmetall Air Defence. The Skyrangers will be linked to Blue Dome’s command and control system, while Belgian companies are expected to take part in the production chain. It is not the first joint European air defence procurement for Brussels, which also takes part in the scheme through which Cyprus buys Mistral systems together with France, Belgium, Estonia and Hungary.
