Rohde & Schwarz

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 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 RF, 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 forced manufacturers to concede their production 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.[3]

BND / NSA Bad Aibling station, also used as Echelon Field Station 81 equipped with Rohde & Schwarz RF-Sattelit interception technology

After business activities were resumed in 1945, the US Army placed a major order to equip the than 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).[4]

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.

Although the US secret services operated SIGINT reconnaissance stations in cooperation with BND, for example in Bad Aibling, Rhode & Schwarz's communications were also intercepted by NSA. Rhode & Schwarz is or was on an NSA hit list made public by 2010 surveillance disclosures of Edward Snowden.[5][6]

HAMEG scope with dual logo in 2012

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 fo German Bundeswehr.[7]

In 2022 R&S acquired the Siegburger company Schönhofer Sales and Engineering GmbH, SSE. The company develops analytic systems for IT and integration of KI analytic tools.[8]

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.[9]

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.[10]

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.[11]

R&S provides product families for secure communication via WAN-, LAN- and WiFi-networks for business and state authorities.

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.[15]

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.

Soveron is a family of SDR radios for military tactical communication, developed by R&S. The radios work at HF, UHF and VHF spectrums and are based on an internationally common Software Communications Architecture standard with backward compatibility. The frequency spectrum ranges from 30 to 600 MHz; simultaneous transmission of voice and data in each radio channel with up to two voice channels is possible. The "Transect" fast frequency hopping technology provides robustness against jamming attacks. For bandwidth efficient voice compression is a MELPe codec used.[16] Soveron is already used by a number of NATO and non-NATO forces.[17]

When the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine started in 2022, the German government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) decided on a special assets ("Sondervermögen") for fitting of German armed forces for example by a state of the art command and information system. Rohde & Schwarz was awarded the contract for 2.9 billion EUR in 2022 for Armed Forces Joint Connected Radio Equipment (Streitkräftegemeinsame verbundfähige Funkausstattung (SVFuA)) and will deliver its Soveron program.

Public known users of Soveron are the Portugese Army, the Canadian Armed Forces and an unidentified Asian armed force.

The company supplies measurement solutions for cellular and wireless technologies from 6G, 5G, LTE, GSM, UMTS/HSPA(+), CDMA2000 to Bluetooth, GPS and wireless Internet access via WLAN and WiMAX. It offers devices for the development and production of chipsets, mobile devices and base stations. Network operators use Rohde & Schwarz products to plan, build and monitor their networks. R&S has developed suitable signal generators and analyzers for 5G and LTE Advanced.

Rohde & Schwarz develops measuring devices for radio links as well as radar and satellite communication systems for the aviation and defense industries. The company also offers complete systems for EMC and field strength meters. These are used for example to detect electromagnetic interference in automotive electronics.

From the early days R&S developed transmitter for various use. After WW II the company developed transmitters and instruments for radio and TV broadcasting. Rohde & Schwarz provides transmitters for analog and digital TV; in the US also in the ATSC standard, in Asia and South-America for ISDB-T and in DVB-T2 for europe.

By acquiring smaller companies since 2015, R&S could offer a whole portfolio also for TV- and radio production, as well as transmitting the program.

Since 2016, Rohde & Schwarz has been manufacturing body scanners under the product name QPS (Quick Personnel Security Scanner). The devices are used in addition to baggage screening in airport check-in areas and other access-controlled areas.[18]