Germany adopts the ESSOR High Data Rate Waveform (HDR WF) developed by a4ESSOR joint venture
Bonn, 21th February 2020 – a4ESSOR S.A.S. (Alliance for ESSOR), a multi-national joint venture which is developing European Secure Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology, has been awarded a contract amendment by OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d’ARmement) which allows Germany to join the ESSOR (European Secure SOftware defined Radio) programme and its OC1 (Operational Capability 1) phase as a new participating state alongside existing partners Finland, France, Italy, Poland and Spain. The contract amendment will replace the ESSOR OC1 contract signed in November 2017. The duration of the new ESSOR OC1 contract is 63 months and the total value for a4ESSOR is approximately EUR 100 million. Work will be shared between the six companies participating in a4ESSOR: Bittium (Finland), Indra (Spain), Leonardo (Italy), Radmor (Poland), Rohde & Schwarz (Germany) and Thales (France).
The ESSOR programme is the state of the art of the European Secure Software Defined Radio (SDR). Started in 2009 as a real te chnological challenge, ESSOR has proven the success of its multinational joint industrial development by demonstrating its broadband networking waveform on a number of different radio platforms provided by the members of the a4ESSOR industrial consortium including Bittium, Indra, Leonardo, Radmor and Thales. The consortium will now be joined by the German company Rohde & Schwarz. By joining the programme, Germany will be able to exploit the benefits of using ESSOR architecture and methodology and the expertise coming from the ES SOR High Data Rate Waveform 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 Programme together with the other partners, and constitutes an important step towards European in teroperable tactical communications, built on SDR.
Lino Laganà, President and General Manager of a4ESSOR, said: “This contract, which will see Germany participate in the ESSOR programme, is a big step forward towards a common European defence infrastructure. Secure commu nications are key to the interoperability of armed forces, which is why a4ESSOR has been developing high-quality and highly-secure communications capabilities which are easily deployable on several manufacturers’ radios thanks to SDR technology and our ESSOR architecture. This contract also recognises the outstanding work and achievements of the a4ESSOR team over the last ten years, and is an acknowledgment of the importance of the collaboration between our long-standing shareholders Bittium, Indra, Leonardo, Radmor and Thales. The addition of Rohde & Schwarz to the team will deepen our pool of expertise and lead to even further success.”
The OCCAR Director, Matteo Bisceglia, stated: “The signature of this contract constitutes a great leap forward in creating a common European Defence through interoperability and in supporting the creation of a Defence Industrial Technological Base. With the participation of Germany, ESSOR includes now four OCCAR Member States and is the de facto European reference for SDR. The increasing reputation of ESSOR is also testified by its inclusion in the list of projects of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) which pave t he path for a number of new technical development in the framework of the European Defence Industrial Development Project (EDIDP) for which OCCAR is already working in close contact with all relevant stakeholders” .
