• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Spot landing for Bundeswehr paratroopers thanks to EADS navigation system

Munich/Koblenz, 19 November 2003

The special forces of the Bundeswehr are to be equipped with the ParaFinder, a new and globally unique mission planning and navigation system for high-precision parachute jumps from great heights and over long distances. As EADS announced on Wednesday, its Military Aircraft Business Unit and the Federal Office of Defence Technology and Procurement (BWB) have signed a contract for the delivery of 118 ParaFinder units. The contract for the first batch now ordered for the airborne forces of the Bundeswehr is worth € 7.45 million.

The ParaFinder is to be deployed in a number of different Bundeswehr units such as the Division for Special Operations (DSO), the Commando Special Forces (KSK), the paratroopers and the Specialized Forces of the German Navy (SEKM). It enables the air delivery of soldiers precisely on target and on time from heights of up to 10,000 metres and over distances of up to 50 kilometres. This EADS-developed system is virtually all-weather capable. The transport aircraft used, for example Transall or in future the A400M, can remain outside the range of most air defence systems. In addition, the paratroopers are practically undetectable.

Soldiers equipped with the ParaFinder thus practically become "instrumented aircraft", explains Jens Gönnemann, the responsible programme manager at EADS Military Aircraft. "ParaFinder consists of two components: an element for mission planning, which can be programmed with various weather data such as the wind headings at the planned jump altitude. The second component is the navigation control computer, which guides the paratrooper to the predefined landing zone with the help of a helmet-mounted display."

On account of its similar system architecture and the identical module for mission planning, the currently ordered ParaFinder is closely related to the ParaLander, an autonomous ram-air parachute system for heavy loads that has been developed by EADS Military Aircraft. Military and humanitarian loads weighing between one and six tonnes – for instance mission vehicles, shelters or water treatment plants – can be dropped precisely into the predefined landing zones by the ParaLander, such operations being possible in virtually any weather conditions.

EADS is the second largest aerospace and defence company in the world with revenues of € 29.9 billion in the year 2002 and a workforce of more than 100,000. It is a systems integrator and as such is one of the few companies worldwide capable of combining various products and technologies to form complete systems and offering the associated services. The EADS Group includes the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the world's largest helicopter supplier Eurocopter and the joint venture MBDA, the second largest missile producer in the global market. EADS is the major partner in the Eurofighter consortium, is the prime contractor for the Ariane launcher, develops the A400M military transport aircraft and is the largest industrial partner for the European satellite navigation system Galileo. EADS has over 70 sites in France, Germany, Great Britain and Spain and is active in many regions worldwide, amongst them America, Russia and Asia.

Your point of contact:

Military Aircraft
Wolfram Wolff
Tel.: +49-89-607 25711
Fax: +49-89-607 22455
e-mail: wolfram.wolff@m.eads.net