Europe: Rheinmetall sets standards

Rheinmetall has successfully prevailed against a large number of competitors in the first call for proposals for the preparatory action of EU defence research, financed by the EU Defence Fund of the European Union. The Düsseldorf-based high-tech company was selected by the European Commission to lead a consortium with partners from nine EU Member States in the Generic Open Soldier Systems Reference Architecture (GOSSRA) project.

"We are pleased that we are already successful in this early phase of forming a European Defence Union with our proposal. This success strengthens us on the path we have now taken towards the strategic expansion of our activities for EU matters in Brussels in accompanying further programmes of the European Union to strengthen Europe's strategic autonomy in security and defence policy," commented Thomas Weise, head of the recently opened Rheinmetall Group representation for EU and NATO affairs in Brussels.

In the GOSSRA project, research is being conducted to develop an open reference architecture as the basis for the EU-wide standardization of future soldier systems. This includes electronics, voice and data communication, software solutions, human-machine interfaces, sensors, and effectors. Rheinmetall, as a supplier of the Infantryman of the Future - Extended System (IdZ-ES of the German Bundeswehr), Argus (Canada), and the recently introduced Gladius 2.0, has leading expertise in this segment.

An important step towards improving interoperability in conducting joint operations with participants from multiple EU Member States. For this purpose, Rheinmetall has brought together all major European soldier system companies (Indra and GMV Aerospace and Defence from Spain, Leonardo SpA and Larimart from Italy, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO, the Polish iTTi Sp. Z.o.o., and the Portuguese Tekever ASDS Lda. and SAAB AB from Sweden) under its leadership in a consortium and successfully led them through the bidding phase.

Rheinmetall on the Internet: www.rheinmetall-defence.com