Rohde & Schwarz has launched the R&S SDAR software-defined airborne radio. The radio offers secure, high data rate communications, flexible deployment and true independence to customers. The R&S SDAR adopts the latest generation software defined radios and network-enabled waveforms. It combines the advantages of a high data rate, IP-based radio with technical performance from its R&S M3AR family of airborne radios.
According to Rohde & Schwarz, it is the only vendor to meet the civil certification regulations of the European Aviation Safety Agency. Military aircraft can only be certified and deployed without restrictions if they meet both the military and civil standards. Two radios must usually be carried on board an aircraft to ensure fail-safe performance. The R&S SDAR airborne radio can be used for both applications, delivering unprecedented efficiency in terms of logistics, integration, maintenance and training. It also simplifies integration, and saves space and weight in the aircraft.
As a state-of-the-art software-defined radio, the R&S SDAR supports the porting of waveforms independent of the manufacturer to give customers additional flexibility. The R&S SDAR has been designed as an open platform based on the international Software Communications Architecture (SCA) standard, with a strict separation between the radio’s hardware and software, the waveforms. That makes it possible to port SCA-based waveforms, including those from other manufacturers as well as legacy waveforms to the radio, providing safety of investment along with backward compatibility with legacy radio systems. It also enables customers to create and modify embedded encryption along with the waveforms. This allows secure communication channels to be set up to provide interoperability between different branches of a country’s armed forces and between different nations. National data is protected and information superiority in joint operations and combined missions can be achieved.
