Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG ( ROH-də ... SHWORTS, German: [ˈʁoːdə ʔʊnt ˈʃvaʁts]) is a German multinational electronics group specializing in the fields of electronic test equipment, broadcast & media, cybersecurity, radiomonitoring and radiolocation, and radiocommunication. The company also provides products for wireless communications, the electronics industry, aerospace and defense, homeland security and critical infrastructures. In addition to the Munich headquarters, there are regional headquarters in the United States (Columbia, Maryland) and in Asia (Singapore). Worldwide the company has a total of more than 15,000 employees in over 70 countries.
History
PTE and World War 2 The company was founded by Lothar Rohde and Hermann Schwarz who met while studying physics in Jena. They built their first T&M instrument in 1932, and in August 1933, the Physikalisch-Technisches Entwicklungslabor Dr. Rohde & Dr. Schwarz (known as PTE) started in business. Ceramic insulation for frequencies above 1 MHz were improved in the second half of the 1920s when German firm Hermsdorf-Schomburg-Isolatoren-Gesellschaft, also known as Hescho, produced new types of ceramic material with very low loss at radio frequencies, due to the absence of iron. These parts were difficult to measure, but PTE developed suitable test equipment. In 1934, a British manufacturer of electrical insulation placed an order with them for a similar device. In 1937, the small laboratory moved into a former bakery on Tassiloplatz, not far from Munich's Ostbahnhof. Rohde & Schwarz already employed 35 workers and offered 24 different devices in its catalog at this time. In 1938, it manufactured the first portable quartz clock with a weight of 36 kg. PTE Started a second factory "Messgerätebau GmbH" in 1941 in Allgäu on the Swiss border. The Wehrmacht's sustained demand for radio equipment manufacturers generated orders and sales as part of the militarization of the Third Reich's Economy. The measurement equipment for HF-technology promoted the development of radar and radio systems of Wehrmacht in WW2.
Internationalisation after 1945 After business activities were resumed in 1945, the US Army placed a major order to equip the then United States Air Force base in Erding that ensured the company's continued existence. In the same year the company was renamed Rohde & Schwarz (R&S). The company became one of the most important suppliers for radar and reconnaissance companies of the newly founded Bundeswehr. The company also quickly worked closely with the German Federal Intelligence Service, which was founded in 1956.
Since 2000
Although the US secret services operated SIGINT reconnaissance stations in cooperation with BND, for example in Bad Aibling, Rohde & Schwarz's communications were also intercepted by NSA. Rohde & Schwarz is or was on an NSA hit list made public by 2010 surveillance disclosures of Edward Snowden.
In 2012 R&S acquired the traditional German manufacturer for oscilloscope technology HAMEG. In 2016 the company was fully integrated to R&S and the products only branded with "Rohde & Schwarz". In 2018 a joint venture with Rheinmetall was established: RRS-MITCOS was designed to develop digital solutions for the German Bundeswehr. In 2022 R&S acquired the Siegburger company Schönhofer Sales and Engineering GmbH, SSE. The company develops analytic systems for IT and integration of AI analytic tools. In May 2022, Rohde & Schwarz announced the acquisition of UK based technology training and development company The Technology Academy. The technology company specialises in web-based training in the fields of radio frequency, wireless and microwave engineering technology. R&S has grown from just over 6,500 employees in 2010 to over 13,000 in 2022 and is represented at 70 locations worldwide. This growth was not exclusively organic, but also included company acquisitions such as Lancom - one of the leading manufacturers of network infrastructure. In 2023, R&S received a comprehensive contract worth several billion to update the communications systems and equip almost all military units in the German Bundeswehr with its SOVERON digital radio system.
Products
With its three Test & Measurement, Technology Systems and Networks & Cybersecurity divisions the company generated net revenue of EUR 2.93 billion in the 2023/24 fiscal year. R&S subsidiary for oscilloscopes HAMEG was producing the standard testing equipment for companies, schools and universities in Germany. In 2010, Rohde & Schwarz launched the world's first oscilloscope with a digital trigger. More than 200 airports deploy Rohde & Schwarz radiocommunications systems. In 2011, the company began selling voice communications systems for air traffic control (ATC). These systems are based on a product from Topex SA, a company in which Rohde & Schwarz acquired a majority interest in 2010. Rohde & Schwarz SIT GmbH develops crypto products and systems for government agencies, the German armed forces, authorities, the military and private industry. The subsidiary's high-security encryption technology is used for both wireless and wireline communications. As early as 2001, Rohde & Schwarz SIT launched the world's first crypto phone TopSec GSM.
IT-Network technology and cybersecurity R&S provides product families for secure communication via WAN-, LAN- and WiFi-networks for business and state authorities.
Military SIGINT, ELINT and EW technology R&S provides ELINT systems for comprehensive intelligence gathering capability especially for modern radar signals. Digital wideband recording preserves all signal properties such as instantaneous amplitude, frequency and phase and detects also frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radars and solid-state radars operating at very low power level.
Radio communication networks for armed forces R&S supplies interoperable radio communication systems for military, government and civilian use. Like its competitor Thales, Elbit etc, the company develops software-defined radio devices (SDR). At R&S, radio and telecommunications reconnaissance have always been the highest-earning business areas with a small number of customers.
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