Growing strong
Elettronica, which was founded in 1951, within few years quickly, established itself as a leader among Companies designing and manufacturing Electronic Defence Systems. Over the last 60 years its systems have equipped numerous air, naval and ground platforms, of both national and international Armed Forces.
This is primarily due to the Company’s ability to readily adapt to different needs whilst refining specific techniques and strategies.
Elettronica has demonstrated a great ability to combine tradition and innovation, building a philosophy which stands out for its flexibility, an indispensable requirement to achieve excellence in the Electronic Defence sector.
All these elements of excellence, the consolidation of existing industrial alliances coupled with the creation of new partnerships, will enable Elettronica to meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive international panorama.
ELT’s strength lies in maintaining a broad vision, encompassing the operational, technological and industrial sphere, allowing it to optimize every step, from the identification of market requirements to the manufacture of products.
Background
Elettronica’s history began 60 years ago, when the company started important collaborations with the Italian Contraves Company and the Turin-based Sielte. The latter subsequently released part of its plant in Rome to this newly born industrial concern, in Via Tiburtina 650; where on the 15 May 1955 Elettronica transferred its head office.
In a very short time the company was awarded several major contracts that enabled it to start an important study and experimental phase; in turn, this enabled it to develop increasingly advanced equipment to meet the new market needs.
In this context, further to enlarging the precision metal machining and metalworking department, involving significant investments for the purchase of machines, qualified personnel and a renewed electronics assembling system, the company began to specialize in the field of Electronic Countermeasures (ECM).
Production included radar countermeasures equipment, as well as the first power transmitters (Cicala series) and ground Direction Finders. Thanks to the constant commitment in the field of research, training and strategic component instrumentation, in the late 1960s Elettronica became a major industry leader in the European defence market.
In the 1970s came important recognitions in the international field, with the development and production of ECM Self-protection systems for Italian and German Air Forces.
Nearing the 40th year of activity, Elettronica inevitably found itself in the thick of the world market crisis, which caused it to sell some minor operations such as Electronic Defence in the Communications and in IR Bands, and to then focus on the Radar Band instead.
The 1990s saw profound changes in the industrial structure of the sector, with numerous mergers between industrial groups and the formation of business groups for international programs.
In order to maximize product and business synergies, in 1996 the Company signed an agreement with the French company Thomson, (today’s Thales), with which it co-pursued contracts for the development and production of defence equipment for the Mirage 2000/9 aircraft of the United Arab Emirates and other airborne platforms, as well as naval products.
In those years Elettronica became the first Company worldwide to develop and produce deception and jamming equipment based on “solid-state” microwave amplification technology.
ELT started the new Millennium combining both continuity and the strengthening of its existing competitive position, through the launch of new initiatives both at market/product and organizational level.
The new market approach was characterized by a new business model whose key points were international cooperation and the setting up of local activities in target Countries. In 2003 Elettronica acquired a minority share in a small US company, LNX, managing supply-chain operations with US suppliers and a joint-project for advanced technological components.
In recent years, the company also participated in important joint ventures with two other companies, AEDS and ELTBAT, based in India and in the United Arab Emirates, respectively.
Mission
The development of the threat must be appropriately balanced by a constant improvement of Electronic Defence Systems, both in terms of features and performance. Elettronica adheres to this principle and has always placed particular emphasis on “innovation”, both in terms of product architectures and enabling technologies.
For this reason Elettronica annually provides substantial self-financing totally dedicated to research and development. It is this very process that has enabled the Company to become a market leader, proven by the development such key items as:
• Advanced interception techniques
• Advanced countermeasures techniques
• Integrated and multifunctional electronic defence systems
• Electronic warfare manager
• Electro-optic countermeasures systems
• Active phased array
• Digital receiver and waveform synthesizer (draws)
• Broad band digital receivers
The products developed by Elettronica can be divided into passive and active systems for air, naval and ground platforms, covering the radar, infrared and, in recent years, Communication and Cyber Warfare fields as well.
In particular, Elettronica specializes in the design, development and production of Electronic Defence Passive Systems for search, interception, analysis, identification and localization of electromagnetic emissions (ESM/ Tactical ELINT), Radar Warning Receivers (RWR), Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) Systems, and integrated ESM/ECM Systems. Subject of study in recent years, and still in progress, are the Communications EW (COMM EW) products, together with the more recent Cyber Warfare and IR Countermeasures.
In cyber warfare ELT is also working in the defensive (cyber security) and offensive (cyber attack) tasks conducted by the combined and distributed use of electronic technology, information systems and telecommunications infrastructure, which provide interception, manipulation or destruction of information and enemy communications systems.
Resources
The motto, “Mind is the first defence”, chosen by Elettronica gives prominence to its greatest asset: its staff. The collection of experiences, expertise and professionalism of its employees has always been the key to the company’s success: a dedicated team of 750 people who work hard to come up with the most appropriate responses to a continuously changing market.
The training structure has been designed on the basis of a system of distinctive skills, which focus on their objectives and needs, and is characterized by a continuously updated training path. Like, behind every product is a thought, behind every thought is a man.
Customer support
Elettronica provides customers with support and assistance during the entire product lifecycle, both to ensure optimum employment in terms of performance flexibility (Operational Support), and to maintain high operational availability (Logistic Support).
