Integrated NATO Air Defense System NATO Integrated Air Defense System or NATINADS was the NATO response to the Soviet development of long range bomber s in the 1970s . The need to maintain a credible deterrence when early warning and intercept times were massively reduced led to the development of an improved air defence ( AD ) system . Development was approved by the NATO Military Committee in December 1955 . The system was to be based on four air defense regions ( ADRs ) coordinated by SACEUR ( Supreme Allied Commander Europe ) . Starting from 1956 early warning coverage was extended across Western Europe using 18 radar stations . This part of the system was completed by 1962 . Linked to existing national radar sites the coordinated system was called the NATO Air Defence Ground Environment ( NADGE ) . From 1960 NATO countries agreed to place all their air defence forces under the command of SACEUR in the event of war . These forces included command & control ( C2 ) systems , radar installations , and Surface - to - Air ( SAM ) missile units as well as interceptor aircraft . By 1972 NADGE was converted into NATINADS consisting of 84 radar sites and associated Control Reporting Centers ( CRC ) and in the 1980s the Airborne Early Warning / Ground Environment Integration Segment ( AEGIS ) upgraded the NATINADS with the possibility to integrate the AWACS radarpicture and all of its information into its visual displays . ( NOTE : This AEGIS is not to be confused with the U . S . Navy AEGIS , a shipboard fire control radar and weapons system . ) AEGIS processed the information through Hughes H5118ME computers , which replaced the H3118M computers installed at NADGE sites in the late 1960s and early 1970s . NATINADS ability to handle data increased with faster clock rates . The H5118M computer had a staggering 1 megabyte of memory and could handle 1 . 2 million instructions per second while the former model had a memory of only 256 kilobytes and a clock speed of 150000 instructions per seconds . NATINADS / AEGIS were complemented , in W - Germany by the German Air Defence Ground Environment ( GEADGE ) , an updated radar network adding the southern part of W - Germany to the European system and Coastal Radar Integration System ( CRIS ) , adding data links from Danish coastal radars . In order to counter the hardware obsolescence , during the mid - 90 ' s NATO started the AEGIS Site Emulator ( ASE ) program allowing the NATINADS / AEGIS sites to replace the proprietary hardware ( the 5118ME computer and the various operator consoles IDM - 2 , HMD - 22 , IDM - 80 ) with Commercial - Off - the - Shelf servers and workstations . In the first years 2000 , the initial ASE capability was expanded with the possibility to run , thanks to the new hardware power , multiple site emulators on the same hardware , so the system was renamed into Multi - AEGIS Site Emulator ( MASE ) . The NATO system designed to replace MASE in the near future is the Air Command and Control System ( ACCS ) . Because of changing politics , NATO expanding and financial crises most European ( NATO ) countries are trying to cut defence budgets ; as a direct result lots of obsolete and outdated NATINADS facilities are phased out earlier . Currently ( 2013 ) still operational NATO radar sites in Europe are these : Germany Greece Italy Norway Portugal Spain UK " Other ( non - NATO ) operational radar sites in Europe " Austrian radar ( GOLDHAUBE ) Swiss radar ( FLORAKO )