Rohde & Schwarz UK Ltd was awarded a contract from the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA) for the production phase of the VHF and UHF Emergency Radio System for both Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) aircraft carriers.

The award comes after a successfully completed design phase, Rohde & Schwarz UK will now build two equipment racks for each vessel housing the state of the art V/UHF software defined radios from Rohde & Schwarz and recording equipment, incorporating the latest software and remote control.

The heart of the system is based on the R&S(r)M3SR Series 4400 VHF/UHF radio family and is designed for stationary air defense, civil and military air traffic control and shipborne applications. It belongs to a generation of stationary VHF/UHF radios that feature innovative designs, high modularity and in particular outstanding specifications.

For civil applications, the R&S(r)M3SR Series4400 systems were developed in line with international civil air traffic control guidelines (EN 300676) while integrating the requirements for the UHF Band I in line with EN 302617.

The R&S(r)M3SR Series4400 offers military customers a wide range of interfaces and associated proprietary frequency hopping waveforms, as well as radio communications schemes that conform to NATO standards. Military data transmission methods such as LINK 11 and LINK 22 are also supported.

To ensure that existing R&S(r)M3SR Series4400 systems remain up-to-date, their functionality can be enhanced through subsequent software downloads and, if necessary, by using new hardware modules.

With this range of functions, the R&S(r)M3SR Series 4400 radio family serves as a seamless communications bridge between the various military forces and civil units.

The contract was signed by Joe Kidd, Combat Systems Director, Thales, and Frank Mackel, Managing Director of Rohde & Schwarz UK Ltd, celebrated by a contract signing ceremony on 26th May 2011 at the Rohde & Schwarz UK facilities at Fleet where the radio and recorder equipment will be installed into the racks for testing and acceptance.