Berlin Security Conference 2021: ESG to adapt Israeli combat cloud for Germany

The already operationally proven OPAL combat cloud will form the basis of the NEOS system that ESG is to develop for Germany. (IAI via Janes/Gareth Jennings)

Elektroniksystem und Logistik (ESG) is to adapt an operationally proven Israeli combat cloud to the needs of the Bundeswehr, the German electronics and mission systems specialist announced on 24 November.

Speaking at the Berlin Security Conference, ESG's director of business development and sales, Simon Volkmann, said that the company is to utilise the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Operational Avionics Layer (OPAL) to develop its Network Enabled Operations Support (NEOS) for the air assets of the German armed forces primarily, but for the other domains also.

“We want to further develop the existing [OPAL] product to bring network operations-enabled support for Germany, and to bring these benefits to the German armed forces. NEOS, in our vision, will be a complete German product,” Volkmann said. “It is based on the OPAL technology but the applications that give the true value would be custom designed for the German Air Force based on their requirements, and for the German Army, which flies a lot of air assets, as well as for the German Navy, and it will bring together systems that are not connected yet at this time.”

As noted by Volkmann, the NEOS hardware will be qualified, and the aircraft integration will be certified according to German military aviation authority standards. “This is what ESG does every day. We do it for many aircraft already”.