The FCMS industry consortium brings together the German companies Hensoldt Sensors GmbH, Diehl Defence GmbH & Co. KG, ESG Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-GmbH (part of the HENSOLDT Group since 2024) and Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG, the FCMS industrial consortium brings together key competencies in the field of national key technologies relevant to the FCAS/NGWS programme under one roof.
Integration levels with reference to the sensor-effector complex
Robust network
To make all this possible in the first place, the availability of a robust network is essential. This requires high-performance data links to connect the flying units with each other. Due to the high speed and agility of the objects, responsive and low-latency radio procedures are necessary.
These must be interference-free and difficult to detect, while also providing a long range and high data rate. Due to the critical nature of missions and the sensitivity of the data, information protection with strong cryptographic procedures and immunity to cyber attacks is necessary. Special applications that use video or image data transmission also require high data rates.
The combination of these demanding characteristics must be implemented with low energy consumption and a small footprint in order to serve agile flying objects of different sizes.
Active Electronically Scanned Arrays
The use of directional antennas (AESA = Active Electronically Scanned Array), which must be installed at many points on the platforms in order to provide complete radio coverage in space, is essential for meeting the above requirements. In some cases, these antennas will also have to serve additional capabilities such as electronic warfare as part of their multifunctionality.
Furthermore, the AESAs must be adapted to the shape of the flying objects so as not to compromise their difficult detectability.
Future-proof solutions and suitable framework conditions
Future-proof solutions must meet suitable framework conditions in order to be able to provide a multidimensional "4π meta sensor-effector system". In addition to a suitable basis of different multifunctional sensor and effector systems and data links, flexible interfaces to and the capabilities of mission management functions need to be taken into account.
The integration into a variety of platforms as well as into the C4I environment entail additional framework conditions. Accompanying to this, a suitable framework in the fields of education, mission planning, mission implementation as well as mission post-processing but also logistics needs to be established.
The objective must be to implement the functionalities of networked effector and sensor systems, independent from a specific platform as well as across all performance dimensions (Air, Land, Sea) to allow the most effective use by the armed forces.
Joint and combined mission
Apart from technological framework conditions and the availability of related resources, the following aspects play a decisive role: All national and international partners involved must be committed to teamwork in the best interest of a joint & combined mission.
The goal must not be to depict today's status quo, but to prepare today what will be possible and necessary in 2040 and to achieve it step by step – the FCAS version 1.0 must constitute full operational capability, a "minimum viable product" is not sufficient.
The companies Hensoldt, Diehl Defence, ESG and Rohde & Schwarz decided to pool their skills in the industrial consortium FCMS in order to push forward the structure of this complex capability in its technological breadth and depth.
Through close cooperation with national and international partners, the industrial consortium FCMS will ensure that the upcoming challenges for the NGWS development will be successfully overcome.
About FCMS
With the german companies Hensoldt Sensors GmbH, Diehl Defence GmbH & Co. KG, ESG Elektroniksystem-und Logistik-GmbH (part of the HENSOLDT Group) and Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG , the industrial consortium FCMS concentrates essential core competences of relevant national key technologies for the FCAS/NGWS program in this field under one roof.
- FCMS offers a broad and technologically well-founded national technology expertise for the FCAS/NGWS program and thus ensures the required national contribution and future viability in the field of the 6th generation of mission systems
- Cooperative partnership with leading research institutes and universities
- The involved companies provide more than 16,000 employees in high-tech jobs in Germany and more than 22,400 employees worldwide.
- Together the companies cover more than 80 % of German key technologies in NGWS and hold more than 7,600 patents, most of them relevant for NGWS
The FCMS sensor-effector network will provide the game changer for operations provided as of 2040.