Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co KG (, ) is an international electronics group specializing in the fields of electronic test equipment, broadcast & media, cybersecurity, radiomonitoring and radiolocation, and radiocommunication. The company provides also products for the wireless communications, 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). About 7,700 of the company's employees work in Germany. Worldwide the company has a total of around 13,000 employees in over 70 countries. Exports account for around 85 percent of revenues.
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 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.
Internationalisation after 1945
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).
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, 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.
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.
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.
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
Rohde & Schwarz greatest attention has always been paid to technology development in the field of interception and encryption technology. The company makes its largest sales in radio communications and radio reconnaissance for military purposes and secret services.