JERUSALEM-The Israeli company Elbit Systems will provide software-defined E-LynX radio stations to the Spanish army after the service has awarded a contract to Elbit Telefonica’s partner, according to a report in Spain confirmed by Elbit.
Elbit said it could not refer directly to the details of the contract, but a company spokesman said in a statement: “We acknowledge the media report that the Spanish Ministry of Defense has chosen E-Lynx software-defined radio in manual and car configurations as a solution. for the Spanish army. ”
According to the November 10 report Infodefense, the contract was awarded in October by the General Directorate of Armaments and Materials for 6.5 million euros ($ 7.7 million).
“Telefonica explained in a presentation that some of the components of the E-Lynx radio will be manufactured and integrated in Spain by the company with the support of other companies such as Aicox, while other equipment will come from Elbit’s facilities in Israel,” the report read. Aicox is a telecommunications and technology company in Spain.
The award comes after other recent orders from Elbit radio stations in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.
In July 2020, the Swedish Army chose Elbit to supply 1,000 additional systems after an initial contract in 2018. In October 2019, the Swiss Federal Public Procurement Service ordered the same radio for the country’s military.
In June 2019, the German Ministry of Defense selected Elbit’s subsidiary in the country to provide radios in manual and automobile configurations for platoon and company levels of the army. Local production of the radio stations would facilitate “additional expansions and opportunities,” the company said at the time.
The popularity of software-defined radios has attracted the attention of other Israeli companies, such as Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which competes in Europe and sees opportunities across the continent. In Spain, Raphael teamed up with Technobit for a contract with the Spanish army. The Spanish program requires industry partners to partner with a local company.
Procurement from Spain will take place in stages, such as the initial battalion contract. Estimates by Israeli companies set the overall program at hundreds of millions of dollars. This multi-stage process is common in other European countries, such as the Swedish program.
The trend in public procurement for software-defined radio stations will increase the ability of states and units to communicate effectively with each other, and disputed by Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, a former U.S. military commander in Europe, mentioned in 2019 when he noted that NATO allies “can’t even talk for sure.” Taking tactical radio communications to the next level is a problem the military is trying to solve, the U.S. military said last year.
On November 12, Elbit announced the launch of its E-LynxX-Sat, a system for adding satellite communications that uses a terminal to interface with software-defined E-LynX radio.
E-LynX radio facilitates “advanced networking solutions both outdoors and in urban areas,” the company said. “The E-LynX family of radio systems is designed with an open architecture approach, has unique waveforms and allows the reception of a number of additional European and NATO waveforms.”
The SATCOM add-on will allow infantry and shunting forces to maintain secure voice communication and data transmission over “hundreds of kilometers” ranges, the company said. The system was demonstrated during a combat experiment by the British Army.
Comments are closed.