Israeli defense electronics company Elbit announced on Tuesday that it has been selected to provide the Swiss military with a radio communication system.
The deal, to be approved by the Swiss parliament, is estimated at $ 200-300 million, according to Hebrew media.
Elbit said it was chosen to provide the Swiss military radio with a solution after lengthy tests by the Swiss defense authorities and was elected by the Swiss Federal Ministry of Defense, Civil Defense and Sport.
The company will provide Switzerland with a communication platform based on its own E-LynX family of tactical software, defined radio solutions.
“We are proud to have been chosen to provide such an important capability to the Swiss Armed Forces. Switzerland is a strategic market for us and we will continue our efforts to support the Swiss Armed Forces and expand our cooperation with Swiss industry, “said Bejalel Mahlis, President and CEO of Elbit, in a statement.
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Elbit Systems was chosen by @vbs_ddps to provide the Swiss Armed Forces with tactics for the entire army #SoftwareDefinedRadio (SDR) solution based on the open architecture E-LynX SDR family. https://t.co/CJAA3GkS6N pic.twitter.com/N7o6nXw7Zv
– Elbit Systems (@ElbitSystemsLtd) October 29, 2019
The Swiss military plans to buy the equipment sometime next year, it said. The contract will replace its mobile radios and vehicle intercom systems, which are due to end their service life between 2018 and 2022.
Switzerland began looking for replacements for its communications equipment in 2015, initially inviting 15 companies to submit bids.
Elbit eventually defeated Swiss communications company Roschi Rohde & Schwarz AG, Ittigen, a subsidiary of Germany’s Rohde & Schwarz, to win the contract.
Elbit had previously worked with the Swiss military on a deal that caused some controversy in Switzerland.
In 2015, Elbit sold Swiss surveillance drones at an estimated cost of $ 256 million.
The deal was controversial in Switzerland, with opponents urging the country not to invest in the Israeli military industry over what they called its human rights abuses against the Palestinians.
The Swiss defense minister said Switzerland had bought the drones from a private company and that the drones would only be used for border surveillance.
Swiss defense officials were convicted in 2017 for observation of unmanned aerial vehicle tests in the Golan Heights.
The Swiss Ministry of Defense stated that the employees were not aware that the airport they had visited was in “occupied territory” and that their visits to the site were “contrary to the policy of the country’s Foreign Ministry” and that the Swiss to be allowed visit the area.
