ERA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the German company Diehl Defence on cooperation in the field of passive surveillance systems and multi-sensor tracking capabilities for Diehl’s ground-based air defence systems (GBAD) as part of the ILA Airshow in Berlin, Germany, on 6 June 2024.
Ondřej Chlost, ERA CEO and the Chairman of ERA Board of Directors, Helmut Rauch, CEO of Diehl Defence, Jakub Thomas, Commercial Director of ERA, and Torsten Cook, Senior Vice President Business Unit Ground-Based Air Defence of Diehl Defence, signed the MoU document on the occasion of the ILA Airshow, during a ceremony at the Diehl Defence stand. ERA personnel are also co-staffing the Diehl Defence display of GBAD systems in the Defence Park on the event premises.
The MoU foresees the intentions of both companies to complement the Diehl Defence GBAD systems, primarily IRIS-T SLM, with ERA’s world-leading Passive ESM Tracker (PET). Access to another ERA product, ERIS Multi-Sensor Tracker (MST), will allow for real-time data fusion of data for active and passive systems.
GBAD is one of PET’s battle proven cases (two additional being Air Surveillance and Electromagnetic Warfare). Thanks to supremacy in real-time detection, tracking and identification of airborne targets (fast movers, UAVs) in the airborne domain, a passive sensor plays a vital role in complementing active sensors in GBAD, otherwise vulnerable against electronic (EW) countermeasures.
According to the MoU, both companies will assist each other in marketing efforts with multi-sensor-capable and passive-sensor-enabled GBAD systems. The availability of ERA components in the modular IRIS-T SLM architecture will provide customers with additional options for their individual configurations, providing Diehl Defence with a wider market potential. This will be of particular interest to nations, which participate in the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI).
