EADS to Equip Swiss Military Airfields With Advanced Air Traffic Control Systems

Approach Control System Ensuring Safe Coordination of Air Traffic

Increased safety due to automatic aircraft identification

(December 18, 2009) -- EADS Defence & Security (DS) will equip Swiss military airfields with a new military approach control system to ensure flight safety in the dense air traffic of Central Europe and in particular over the mountainous terrain of Switzerland.

As the company announced on Friday, Defence Electronics, an integrated activity of DS, has been awarded a contract by the Swiss procurement authority "armasuisse" for the installation of a total of five approach control systems at the military airfields of Payerne, Emmen, Meiringen, Sion and Locarno. This order has a value of more than 130 million euros and is to be completed by the end of 2016.

The systems to be delivered under the designation "Military Approach Control System for Switzerland" (German acronym: "MALS Plus") are intended to replace the obsolete radars previously used by the Swiss Armed Forces for military air traffic control. They will be used for approach control at the airfields themselves and also for air surveillance within a large radius to safely coordinate, amongst other things, military flight movements with civil air traffic.

"Air traffic, especially in Europe, has become so dense," explained Bernd Wenzler, CEO of Defence Electronics, "that both civil and military air traffic control can no longer manage without the most modern radars and automatic identification systems. In this way, our products are making an important contribution to increasing the safety of our citizens in everyday life."

Source : European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS N.V. (Paris: EAD.PA) - click here for more information