Airbus DS Electronics and Border Security are uniting sensor technologies in one hand.
The newly formed company, Airbus DS Electronics and Border Security (EBS), offers key sensor technologies from a single source. The new sensor specialist is publicly unveiled as “The new Sensor House” at the ongoing International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) in Berlin.
EBS combines various Airbus activities from the area of security and defence electronics and develops innovative products for reconnaissance and intelligence, the protection of soldiers and the creation of situation pictures, taking full advantage of the broad technology basis established by its predecessors such as Telefunken, Zeiss, Dornier and Siemens.
EBS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space. The Airbus Group has concluded an agreement with the investment company KKR for the sale of shares and has initially transferred 74.9% of the EBS shares to KKR. The agreement is subject to approval from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and is expected to take effect by the first quarter of 2017 at the latest. Thereafter, the company will appear under the brand name “Hensoldt” following the tradition of a German pioneer of sensor technology whose name stands for the combination of innovation and efficiency.
“We bring together all the essential sensor technologies irrespective of a platform under a single roof and, as a result, are able to create exceptionally powerful products in the area of reconnaissance and intelligence,” explained the Managing Director, Thomas Müller, at a press conference in Berlin.
“In this way, we ensure the operational capability of the Bundeswehr and the allied armed forces and make a decisive contribution to the protection of soldiers,” he added.
At ILA, Airbus DS Electronics and Border Security is presenting its latest developments in the area of sensor technology and the creation of situation pictures. They include the ASR, the most powerful airport surveillance radar in the world, the TRS-4D naval radar system, which is at present being installed on the new German Navy frigates, and the MILDS missile warning sensor, which is the leading warning sensor for helicopters and wide-body aircraft in the world, with approximately 8,000 sensor units already having been sold.
Furthermore, EBS is demonstrating two of its outer space applications at the ILA. The Ganymede Laser Altimeter (GALA) will be used as part of the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer Mission (JUICE) for exploring three Galilean moons: Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. This will involve GALA recording topographic data on the Galilean moons with high lateral and vertical resolution in order to obtain decisive parameters for understanding the structure and the dynamic properties of these distant planets. In addition, GALA will transmit laser pulses back to Earth from a distance of a billion kilometres. Moreover, EBS is providing the optical and electronic components for the BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA) for exploring Mercury. The specific challenges involved in this are the extreme temperature fluctuations on the surface of Mercury and the infrared radiation emitted by the planet’s hot surface.
EBS is the new sensor house, a leading global provider of premium electronics in the areas of protection, reconnaissance and surveillance. The enterprise equips armed forces and security organisations around the world on the basis of a 100-year tradition and experience gained from renowned technological predecessors such as Dasa, Siemens, Aérospatiale-Matra, Telefunken, Dornier and Zeiss.
EBS employs some 4,000 employees generating revenues of approximately €1 billion per year.
