NEWTOWN, Conn. -- Rohde & Schwarz's long-running series of M3AR airborne transceivers have been high-selling items for two decades, and that success is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. The series' software operation has allowed the company to consistently improve the systems and adapt them for the market's current needs. The series' broad range of form factors combined with the flexibility provided by the wide range of protocols that the transceivers are qualified for has been a major driver of sales, leading to their installation on a diverse range of platforms - among them fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, including fighters, transports, and UAVs.

With 2018's introduction of the next-generation software-defined airborne radio (SDAR), which is now known as the SOVERON AR or AR5000, the M3AR series is positioned to evolve with the airborne transceiver market's more complex requirements. While the SOVERON AR was never designated as a member of the M3AR family, the product was marketed as the next step in the M3AR line. Later, the MR6000 M3AR radio was advertised as being a member of the SOVERON product family, thus the link between the older and next-generation radios was firmly established. As such, the SOVERON AR is included in Forecast International's forecast information.

Little information is available as to which platforms the SOVERON AR will be qualified for (beyond the launch-time news that it would be the first in the M3AR line to be available for the CH-47 and the later news that it could equip the Gripen E/F fighter), so any production forecast based on SOVERON AR sales is somewhat speculative. However, if past success is any measure of how the M3AR series will fare in the future, then the SOVERON AR and M3AR series in general will garner large sales figures well into the 2030s.

In the 2022 through 2031 timespan, production of approximately 3,150 M3AR/SOVERON series transceivers is forecast.

The introduction of the ESSOR radio could be a limiting factor to SOVERON AR sales, especially cutting into European deliveries as the 2020s progress. Implementation of the ESSSOR across European fleets may result in future downward adjustment to production expressed in FI's Worldwide - Misc. Platforms MR6000 forecast line. However, Rohde & Schwarz has the opportunity to parlay its involvement in the ESSOR program to mitigate any business lost to the new radio specification, and could potentially integrate ESSOR waveform into its existing software-defined radios if the spectrums are compatible.

Source: Forecast International
Author: C. Zachary Hofer