Roke Manor Research Ltd. and Indra Sistemas S.A. have concluded agreements for the exclusive licensing to Indra of Roke's Vigilance™ technology for Wide Area Multilateration (WAM). The agreement gives Indra exclusive use of Roke's patents and know-how, for the manufacture, sales, support and further development of the Vigilance system for Air Traffic Management (ATM).

The system reliably and accurately tracks the position of an aircraft using passive and/or active surveillance techniques. Since its inception it has been employed by a number of agencies including the UK National Air Traffic Services and NAV CANADA. Roke has built on this wealth of experience to create the reliable, cost effective, third generation Vigilance multilateration product, which overcomes the limitations of other synchronization techniques. It has been operationally proven to provide cost-effective coverage where line of sight was impossible and traditional Secondary Surveillance Radar systems are impractical.

Indra and Roke are ideal partners in this field, having an aligned vision and the core competencies needed to maximize the value of the Vigilance system to the market. Both companies are comparably organized around six vertical markets; telecoms and media, defense and security, transport and traffic, energy and industry, finance and insurance and public administration and healthcare.

David Smith, managing director of Roke stated, "Indra has become an outstanding reference in air traffic management, both nationally and internationally. As well as licensing Vigilance to Indra we will provide development support to realize the market potential of this ground breaking technology. We anticipate supporting Indra with our expertise for many years to come."

In response Rafael Gallego, general manager at Indra considers the agreement as a strategic advance for his company. He said, "The addition of Vigilance will provide us a new front of opportunities with a complete offering of solutions to our customers in Europe and in the rest of the world."