The former Elettronica Group emerged on the first day of the 2023 Paris Air Show on 19 June as the newly rebranded ELT Group. The company explained that its new identity and image came about “in light of the ambitious strategic evolution set forth by our TENET 2030 plan”.
The Tenet 2030 industrial plan focuses ELT Group on “an increasingly global, multi-domain dimension, reflecting new trends in the realm of sixth-generation air platforms, chiefly the multi-national Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), which ELT Group is involved with”, the company stated.
“Following Tenet 2030, ELT Group is evolving to respond more effectively to new technological challenges and increasingly complex protection demands,” the group’s president and CEO, Enzo Benigni, was quoted as saying in a company press release. “This evolution has been possible thanks to the deep expertise, gained over seven decades, in the innovative use of the electromagnetic spectrum through proprietary technologies, and through continuous work in research and development.
“Today, ELT is a group showcasing its expertise in new domains and in new geographies, without losing focus of its core business, where the company continues to invest in innovative solutions to provide armed forces with advanced proprietary systems,” Benigni added.
A new area of emphasis for the group, known for its heritage and expertise across the electromagnetic spectrum, is operations in the space and cyber domains.
“Space is becoming an increasingly strategic business sector, which, at the same time, is attracting cyber criminals,” the company explained. “Examining emergent threats in this sector, ELT Group is leveraging its electromagnetic spectrum expertise by making the first payload, SCORPIO, for space-based signals intelligence collection placed in a low Earth orbit. The satellite carrying the payload was launched on 15th April on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.”
Regarding the cyber domain, ELT Group stated that, via its CY4GATE investee, it has enhanced the capabilities of its Anti-Drone Interception, Acquisition and Neutralization (ADRIAN) system with a new feature called Cyber RF (Radio Frequency), which makes it capable of effectively detecting and reacting to new and more complex civilian and military operational scenarios involving new-generation malicious unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Cyber RF is a complement to ADRIAN’s jamming, radar and visual modules, allowing it to perform a full takeover of a hostile UAV to achieve a safe landing, avoiding impacts in the locale where the UAV is flying.
“Cyber RF ensures 100% detection of most commercial drones being used for hostile purposes,” the company stated. “It also allows the real-time tracking of the drone and pilot, the possibility of aircraft identification and obtaining related telemetry (cyber detection) and finally selective drone takeover and countermeasures (cyber countermeasures).”
Also relating to the cyber domain, ELT Group entity Cy4Gate used the Paris Air Show to present its Hybrid Cyber Digital Twin platform, which can simulate an information technology/operational technology network to identify potential vulnerabilities and preventively implement countermeasures that facilitate a more effective and timely response to a hacker. Digital twin technology makes it possible to improve the cyber resilience of networks and their technologies; to make red and blue team training more effective by having them practise on simulated attack scenarios using real and current threats; and to implement a ’honey net’ – a simulated network identical to the real one that is used as ‘cyber bait’ for an attacker in order to isolate it, study its behaviour and attack techniques, and then adjust defensive measures.
ELT Group says its new logo, featuring a sphere from which electromagnetic waves propagate, summarises three messages at the heart of the company’s evolution: the dominance of the electromagnetic spectrum in every domain; the global projection of the company; and the increased ability to protect assets, people and data.
Peter Felstead
