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 the radio defined by E-Lynx Software in manual and automotive configurations solution for the Spanish army. ”
According to the November 10 report Infodefense, the contract was awarded in October by the Directorate-General for Armaments and Materials for 6.5 million euros ($ 7.7 million).
“Telefonica explained in a presentation that some of the components of 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 contract comes after other recent orders from Elbit radio stations in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.
In July 2020, the Swedish Army selected Elbit to supply 1,000 additional systems after an initial contract in 2018. In October 2019, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Procurement for Defense 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 automotive configurations for army platoons and company levels. Local production of radio stations would facilitate “further expansion 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.
Spain’s orders will be carried out in stages, such as the initial battalion contract. Israeli companies estimate the total 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 the supply of software-defined radio stations will increase the ability of countries and units to communicate effectively with each other, and challenge that 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 to each other safely.” 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, an additional satellite communications system that uses a terminal to interface with the 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 architectural approach, has unique waveforms and allows the adoption of a number of additional European and NATO waveforms.”
The SATCOM add-on will enable infantry and shunting forces to maintain secure voice and data communication over a range of “hundreds of kilometers,” the company said. The system was demonstrated during a British military military experiment.