EADS Defence & Security selected by the Italian Ministry of Defence to provide Joint Military Message Handling System

The Italian MoD objective is to replace its present messaging system by a messaging system complying with the NATO standard STANAG (Standard Agreement) 4406.

The contract with all its options, is worth 9 M€. It includes, in a first step, the delivery of hardware and software for a Test Bed, and in a second step the overall messaging infrastructure for several operational sites related to the Armed Forces. After the Test Bed validation that includes an Information Technology Security Evaluation Criteria (IT-SEC) security accreditation of the solution, the Joint General Staff will be the first operational site to be equipped and then operational sites could follow by option for the Armed Forces.

EADS Defence & Security, through its Business Unit EADS Defence and Communications Systems (DSC), will be responsible for the engineering, the manufacturing and installation of a Test Bed and of the first operational node for Defence General Staff. Its local co-contractor Engineering Ingegneria Informatica S.p.a will be responsible for the security certification and for the in-country support including manufacturing, installation and acceptance of the other optional operational nodes, as well as the training of the customer and the system operational support.

Once the overall system deployed in 2011, the Italian Armed Forces will benefit from a modern messaging system offering a secured and standardized interoperability among them and with other NATO and non NATO nations.

DS is a leader in this field having provided NATO (NMS), Germany (NUKOM) and France (MUSE) with equivalent interoperable up to date messaging systems.

“This new contract with Italian MoD is a significant achievement for us and we are proud to provide a major military actor in Europe with its new military messaging system, hopefully a prelude to wider cooperation in the field of military ICT infrastructures”, states Hervé Guillou, CEO of EADS Defence and Communications Systems.

EADS Defence and Communications Systems is an integrated Business Unit of EADS Defence & Security (DS). DS is a systems’ solutions provider combining military air systems, missile systems, communications and intelligence systems, global security solutions, sensor and avionics systems, as well as test and support solutions into a single effective network. In 2006, DS – with its around 23,000 employees – achieved revenues of € 5.9 billion.

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2006, EADS generated revenues of € 39.4 billion and employs a workforce of about 116,000.