02. November 2017

OCCAR awards ESSOR Operational Capability 1 (OC1) contract

The OCCAR Director, Arturo Alfonso Meiriño and the a4ESSOR SaS president, Lino Lagana signed today, 2 November, in Bonn the contract for ESSOR Operational Capability 1.

The ESSOR Programme launched by Finland, France, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden managed by OCCAR since its definition, started in 2008 and the first phase successfully ended in 2015. Since then, several ESSOR demonstrations to the main actors of the international Software Defined Radio (SDR) community have proven the value of the ESSOR products. In November 2016, a field demonstration was held in Finland where, for the first time worldwide, radio platforms, independently developed within different national programmes by three contractors, were able to seamlessly interoperate on the field, in a realistic operational scenario. 

Motivated by the success of the first phase, Finland, France, Italy, Poland, and Spain have decided to pursue further the development of the ESSOR High Definition Radio Wave Form to Operational Capability 1 (OC1), enhancing it with new features and functionalities. However, the scope of OC1 is much more than just technical; entailing definition and dissemination of global SDR standards (for both architecture and waveform) based on ESSOR and developing a consistent Through Life Management approach for its lifecycle over the next 20 years. 

OCCAR, thanks to its best practices and Programme Management principles, will ensure the success of this effort, managing all the contractual activities and coordinating the harmonisation of the mid- to long-term expectations of the stakeholders.

The ESSOR Programme has raised the bar for new generation tactical communications, paving the way to interoperable tactical SDR communications with a strong European identity. It will continue to do so, thanks to the coordinated efforts of the Participating States, Industry and OCCAR.

The success of ESSOR is today widely recognised by the international SDR community: new partners have already expressed interest in joining the cooperation and new communication system projects using these ESSOR outputs are already under consideration.