RHEA Group is part of a consortium that has been awarded two contracts to support the air traffic surveillance services of EUROCONTROL, the pan-European, civil-military organization that supports the European aviation sector. RHEA is providing software developer experts for the Air traffic management surveillance tracker and server (ARTAS) programme, extending our involvement in ARTAS that has continued since 2019. In parallel, we are contributing with our software developer experts to the Surveillance Data Distribution System (SDDS) Implementation and Operational Support (SIMOS) team.
EUROCONTROL is responsible for making European skies safer and more efficient, cost effective and environmentally sustainable. RHEA is providing support to two operational products of EUROCONTROL’s distribution and surveillance data processing chain that together ensure the safety and security of air traffic management services: SDDS, which enables safe, secure and efficient surveillance data communications, and ARTAS, the distributed surveillance data processing system.
SDDS is used to distribute surveillance data between air navigation service providers. It is increasingly widely used to provide a versatile and secure solution for surveillance data exchange. RHEA is providing experts for the analysis, improved SDDS cybersecurity and software development and installation for SIMOS, to the SIMOS industrial partner, Leonardo, responsible for supporting and maintaining SDDS.
ARTAS is a Europe-wide, distributed surveillance data processing system that is capable of processing surveillance data reports from different technologies, such as classical radar, Mode-S, wide area multilateration (WAM) and automatic dependent surveillance (ADS). It provides system users with the best real-time air traffic data at the highest possible level of accuracy and reliability. Here also, RHEA is providing experts for software development services of the ARTAS product, which is supported by the CAMOS Industrial Partner, Frequentis Comsoft to develop ARTAS prototypes, maintain and evolve the system.
Giuseppe Paladino, Director of Strategy for Intergovernmental Organizations and Defence at RHEA Group commented: “We have a well-established history of working with EUROCONTROL to support its operational services, with an ongoing role within ARTAS since 2019 and having provided experts for the Centralised ARTAS Maintenance and Operational Support (CAMOS) service. We are committed to providing the highest levels of software developer expertise to both of these products to support operations that make flights safer and underpin this critical infrastructure.”
Sebastiano Di Nuzzo, Program Manager, Leonardo, added: “Leonardo designs and provides complex systems and integrated solutions to ensure efficient and reliable support to the European Air Traffic Management. The expertise of RHEA in software development and cybersecurity will help in ensuring versatile and secure data surveillance exchanges.”
Robert Clauß, Head of Strategic Product Unit Tracker / Surveillance Data Processing, Frequentis Comsoft, said: “Our solutions guide aircraft through every phase of flight, thus contributing to safe flights all over the world. Accessing best real-time air traffic data is essential and RHEA’s expertise in software development and data processing will directly contribute to meeting this objective.”