Multinational joint venture Alliance for ESSOR (a4ESSOR) has signed a procurement contract with the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR).
The contract is related to the ESSOR New Capabilities (ENC) project and has obtained funding from the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP).
It follows EDIDP ESSOR’s ‘Grant Agreement’ signed by OCCAR and partners in July last year.
Non ESSOR nations based firms Telespazio Belgium and Edisoft (Portugal) will take part in the contract.
Telespazio is a joint venture (JV) between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%).
The ENC project aims to develop three new secure and interoperable waveforms namely, ESSOR NBWF, ESSOR 3DWF and ESSOR SATCOM WF.
Furthermore, the alliance will also improve the ESSOR Framework. This work will support the portability of the waveforms on national radio terminals.
It will also help in handling the waveforms throughout their entire lifecycles.
a4ESSOR president and general manager Lino Laganà said that the contract will contribute to the realisation of the common European defence.
He said: “It is a privilege and a great responsibility to run these new projects funded by the European Commission and six ESSOR nations.”
The six ESSOR countries are Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Germany and Finland.
In May this year, the joint venture received formal acceptance for ESSOR High Data Rate (HDR) Base Waveform.
The EDIDP is a European Union industrial programme, funded by the European Commission. It is a preparatory phase of the European Defence Fund (EDF).
ESSOR programme was launched in 2009 and aims to develop pan-European SDR technology.
