The German defense ministry has selected Rohde & Schwarz as its industrial partner for the implementation of the European Secure Software Defined Radio (ESSOR), after joining the project in mid-December 2019.
ESSOR is a long-term program, managed by OCCAR, in which the national champions from Italy, Spain, France, Finland, Poland and now also Germany are working together under the joint enterprise a4ESSOR S.A.S. as prime contractor.
The overarching objective is further development of capabilities in the area of secure communications technology to improve the interoperability of the armed forces. In concrete terms, ESSOR OC1 defines the joint development and updating of an interoperable, trustworthy, robust and wideband radio waveform for connected armed forces.
The duration of the amended ESSOR OC1 contract, which now includes Germany, is 63 months and the total value for a4ESSOR is approximately EUR 100 million. Work will be shared between Finland’s Bittium, Spain’s Indra, Italy’s Leonardo, Poland’s Radmor, Germany’s Rohde & Schwarz and France’s Thales.
The high data rate waveform (HDRWF) developed for ESSOR OC1 is designed for operational and tactical unit command and IP connectivity at the brigade, battalion and lower levels. It features flexible configuration and adaptability to demanding scenarios, and it offers soldiers versatile and robust MANET networks on their national radio systems for combined missions and in the framework of territorial and collective defense.
With support from the European Defense Fund, ESSOR will be augmented with additional waveforms, for example for specific use cases or for air based operations.
“The collaboration of European industry and provision of the most advanced commercially available SDR in the form of SOVERON D will give major projects of the German armed forces, such as D-LBO, an enormous boost in the connected, secure and jam-proof transmission of voice and data,” Hartmut Jäschke, executive vice president of the Rohde & Schwarz Secure Communications Division, commented.
By joining the program, Germany will be able to exploit the benefits of using ESSOR architecture and methodology and the expertise coming from the ESSOR HDRW development in the last ten years. The participation of Germany in ESSOR as a full participating state, enables it to steer the future evolution of the program together with the other partners, and constitutes an important step towards European interoperable tactical communications, built on SDR.
