Thales will supply Belgium with mobile GM200 MM/C radars for Blue Dome, the country's new layered air defence programme, the company said on Tuesday.

The radars will give command centres and weapons systems a common picture of the threats they are tracking, linking detection to the missiles and guns that shoot them down. It is the latest step in Belgium's effort to rebuild its ground-based air defences, after decades in which the country relied largely on allies for protection from the air.

Blue Dome is Belgium's name for a multi-layer shield designed to protect ports, airbases and other critical sites from drones, missiles and low-flying aircraft. The GM200 MM/C will sit at its centre as the sensor that finds and follows targets.

What the GM200 MM/C can do

The GM200 MM/C is a mobile radar built by Thales in the Netherlands, where it is already in service. It can detect, track and classify several threats at once, including small drones, loitering munitions, missiles and low-flying aircraft.

It can also track rockets, artillery rounds and mortar fire, giving it a second role in finding enemy guns. Thales says crews can set the radar up in under 60 seconds, operate it remotely and move it in a standard 20-foot container, so it can be shifted quickly between sites.

Belgium's choice follows Dutch work to integrate the radar with Kongsberg's Fire Distribution Centre and Raytheon's AMRAAM missiles as part of the NASAMS air defence system. The same combination of radar, command system and missile is now being adopted in Brussels, extending a chain that runs from detection to interception.

A shared system across northern Europe

Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Lithuania have also bought the GM200 MM/C radar. Thales says using the same system gives operators a basis for sharing training, maintenance and software updates, and for working together in a crisis.

“Belgium's decision to integrate the GM200 MM/C radar into Blue Dome marks a significant step forward in European air-defence cooperation,” said Hervé Dammann, Thales's executive vice-president for land and air systems.

The company did not say how many radars Belgium would receive, what the order was worth or when deliveries would begin. Belgium announced a wider air defence package at a NATO summit in July, including 10 NASAMS batteries, 20 Skyranger 30 gun systems and 14 Ground Master 200 radars, in a deal valued at more than €3 billion.

What happens next

Thales employs more than 1,400 people at 12 sites in Belgium and says it recruited more than 100 employees in the country in 2026, underlining the industrial side of the deal.

Belgium sits at the heart of NATO's logistics network, with the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge handling much of the alliance's military traffic into Europe. A working Blue Dome shield would protect those routes as well as Belgian towns and cities, at a time when European governments are spending heavily on air defence after years of underinvestment.

The radar announcement gives the programme its sensor. The next steps will be the delivery timetable and the integration of the radars with the missiles and guns that complete the shield.