Haifa, Israel. Elbit Systems has strengthened its business operations in Germany rebranding its wholly-owned German subsidiary TELEFUNKEN RACOMS as Elbit Systems Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG.
The company will be managed by Thomas Nuetzel, who has served as the CEO of TELEFUNKEN RACOMS for the past 10 years.
With a long tradition of providing high-quality solutions to the German Armed Forces, TELEFUNKEN RACOMS has been focusing in recent years on diversifying, leveraging its research and development capabilities as well as its engineering and manufacturing excellence.
Steadily growing, TELEFUNKEN RACOMS has been adding to its Ulm-based operations a range of technologies from across the Elbit Systems portfolio, including: Electro-Optics, Electronic Warfare, Direct Infra-Red Countermeasures, Software Defined Radio, Cyber, Unmanned Systems, Command & Control and others.
Thomas Nuetzel, CEO of Elbit Systems Deutschland, speaking on the development said: “I am proud to lead the operations of Elbit Systems in Germany. We see a great potential for growth as we continue to broaden the range of our offering, expand our engineering workforce while addressing requirements for German sovereignty. We intend to further expand existing co-operations with the German industry and explore new ones.”
Bezhalel (Butzi) Machlis, President and CEO of Elbit Systems, commented: “Germany is an important market for Elbit Systems. We have been operating in Germany for more than a decade, proudly supporting the German Armed Forces, diligently building our engineering base and developing co-operations with local industry. Elbit Systems Deutschland is led by an excellent team, and I am confident that it will continue to steadily grow and play an increasingly meaningful part in Germany’s technological and industrial base.”
Elbit Systems views Germany as a key market and as an international technological and industrial hub with sophisticated military and homeland security forces, the company is continuously exploring additional cooperation with local industries and plans to focus its efforts on leveraging its operationally proven systems and globally acclaimed technological expertise in order to offer a broad portfolio of solutions as well as expand transfer of knowledge and enhance local production.
Elbit Systems has been consistently expanding its operations in key European markets, as part of the company’s long-term strategy. Examples of recent European programs include the UK Military Flight Training System, the Benelux Smart Vest program, the Swiss Unmanned Aircraft Systems program, providing self-protection systems for NATO’s A330 fleet and providing a European country with an array of electronic warfare and signal intelligence systems.
Last year, following a competitive solicitation and technical testing, Elbit Systems’ subsidiary in Germany was selected by the German Federal Ministry of Defence (MOD) to provide the German Army with the E-LynX soldier radios (PNR 1000) in handheld and vehicular configurations. The E-LynX soldier radios will be used at the platoon and company levels and will be installed onboard various combat vehicles including the SPz PUMA.
In-depth transfer of technology (TOT) will facilitate local development and manufacturing of the E-LynX soldier radios that will be supplied to the German Army as well as the development of further extensions and capabilities. Development and production will be done in the company’s production and research & development (R&D) facilities in Ulm, Germany, which will also serve as the support and R&D center for Germany.
The E-LynX soldier radios facilitate advanced networked combat solutions in both open field and in urban areas. This radio system provides forces with the capability to use several voice groups in a single channel and fast data services. It also enables effective closing of the sensor to shooter loop and accurate monitoring of forces location based on radio integrated Blue Force Tracking (BFT) capability.
The radios that will be supplied feature advanced networking waveform with unique concurrent flooding techniques that extend range over a multi-hop network, improve network agility and robustness while dramatically reducing network latency.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist
