OCCAR renews contract with ESG for COBRA support

OCCAR has renewed a contract with ESG to provide continued engineering services for the COBRA system. Pictured is the UK COBRA in Iraq. (EADS)

The Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) has signed an agreement with Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-GmbH (ESG) in relation to the Counter Battery Radar (COBRA) programme.

Announced by OCCAR on 17 October, ESG has been awarded a three-year in-service support (ISS) contract for the COBRA programme.

The ISS follows an earlier ISS agreement signed in 2013 between OCCAR and ESG, which will expire in December 2022.

As part of the latest ISS contract, ESG will continue to support the core engineering services required for the operation of COBRA, which includes obsolescence, configuration, and technical events management, as well as technical assistance, quality assurance, and safety, OCCAR detailed.

In addition to the core ISS requirements, the two participating countries – France and Germany – have also requested for an occupational hazard and IT-security assessment, as well as safety environmental impact analysis and annual logistic documentation updates, OCCAR stated.

An OCCAR spokesperson was unable to provide further details regarding the contract.

COBRA, a C-band (NATO G-/H-band) (4–8 GHz) mobile weapon-locating radar, can detect and track rockets, guns, mortars, swarms, and salvos. The platform was developed by the Euro-Art Consortium comprising Airbus, Hensoldt, Lockheed Martin, and Thales, for France, Germany, and the UK; however, the UK pulled out of the programme in 2012. The systems have been in service since 2004.