The Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'ARmement (OCCAR-EA) has signed on 19.12.2008 a contract on European Secure Software defined Radio (ESSOR), an EDA (European Defence Agency) ad-hoc category B project, with a joint venture consisting of national industrial companies from six EDA participating Member States: Finland, France, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden.
Among other deliverables, the main scope of this project is to provide architecture of Software Defined Radio (SDR) for military purposes, thus offering the normative referential required for development and production of software radios in Europe. In addition, the project will deliver products and services which are related to the validation and verification of waveform portability and platform re-configurability, setting up a common security basis to increase interoperability between European Forces.
The ESSOR products will be based on Software Communication Architecture (SCA) developed originally in the United States in the Joint Program Executive Office for the Joint Tactical Radio System (JPEO JTRS) programme. The ESSOR Programme will be managed by an OCCAR-EA Programme Division based in Bonn (Germany).
Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d’ARmement /Organisation for joint armament cooperation, OCCAR
OCCAR facilitates and manages collaborative European Armament Programmes trough their life cycle, as well as Technology Demonstrator Programmes.
OCCAR was established on the 12 November 1996 by the Defences Ministers of France, Germany, Italy and the UK. Legal status was achieved in January 2001 when the parliaments of the four founding nations ratified the OCCAR Convention. Belgian and Spain joined the organisation respectively in 2003 and 2005.
OCCAR’s aim is to provide more effective and efficient arrangements for the management of existing and future collaborative armament programmes. To support this aim, OCCAR develops and implements best programme management practice.
The highest OCCAR decision-making body is the Board of Supervisors (BoS) for corporate matters and the Programme Boards (PBs) for programme-related matters. The BoS/PBs delegate certain functions to appropriate Committees. The decisions of the BoS/PBs and Committees are implemented by the Executive Administration (OCCAR-EA).
Currently OCCAR manages 6 collaborative programmes. ESSOR is the first EDA Category B programme to be managed by OCCAR.