EADS Defence & Security (DS) has received a contract from the Federal Office for Information Management and Information Technology of the Bundeswehr to supply the network segment for MobKommSysBw, the Bundeswehr’s mobile communications system. With an order volume of almost € 14 million, this is one of the largest projects to be procured by the Bundeswehr in recent years for tactical communications systems. For Defence and Communications Systems (DCS), which is an integrated Business Unit of DS, this is a key contract in the Bundeswehr’s “Green IT” area. First deliveries are planned for the second quarter of 2008.

The MobKommSysBw system consists of the network segment that is to be supplied and the transmission segment consisting of radio relay equipment already installed with the Bundeswehr. The network segment is the central element and enables network-centric operations to be carried out at all command levels, using links with the home country, allies and partners. The contract is thus extremely important for Bundeswehr missions. In the MobKommSysBw project for mobile, tactical networks, the Bundeswehr is for the first time relying entirely on IP-based civil communications standards. For the network technology, the solution proposed is supported mainly by products from the market leader Cisco Systems, with whom DCS entered into a strategic technology partnership in the middle of this year. Their results flow directly into the planned network architecture MobKommSysBw. Here, DCS has developed the capability to integrate such a system in a sheltered container.

The main components include 30 mobile system teams, 10 mobile network management teams, the associated training equipment, a fixed network management facility, training services and documentation. The network segment covers the Initial Operation Capability (IOC) for the broadband traffic of the Joint Support Service.