The ATLAS New Small Wheel Upgrade Project

The upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN foresees a luminosity increase by a factor 5. To cope with the corresponding rate increase, the ATLAS detector needs to be upgraded. The upgrade will proceed in two steps: Phase-I in the LHC shutdown 2018/19 and Phase-II in 2023-25. The largest of the ATLAS Phase-I upgrades concerns the replacement of the first muon station in the high-rapidity region, the so called New Small Wheel. It employs eight layers of Micromegas detectors (MM) and eight layers of small-strip Thin Gap Chambers (sTGC). This configuration copes with the highest rates expected in Phase-II and enhances the performance of the forward muon system by adding triggering functionality to the first muon station. We describe the limitations of the present muon detector and the expected improvements, the requirements for the NSW along with the detector layout, including trigger \& readout electronics based on a newly designed front end ASIC. We will conclude with an update of the status of the project and the steps towards a complete operational system, ready to be installed in ATLAS in 2018/19.