Plath GmbH

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Plath GmbH
IndustryCommunication intelligence
Headquarters
Hamburg
,
Germany
Area served
International
Revenue€45 million (2016)
Websitewww.plath.de

PLATH GmbH is a German company specialising in military radio monitoring and radiolocation, active internationally and with headquarters in Hamburg.

Overview[]

The company specialises in communication intelligence for tactical (COMMS ESM) and strategic applications (COMINT) on the one hand, as well as applications for maritime routing and search and rescue support on the other. With its products and systems, and in association with various subsidiaries, PLATH GmbH covers the entire process chain for communication intelligence, from sensor systems to analysis and the evaluation of mass data. PLATH GmbH has ca. 180 employees and achieved revenues of €45 million in the 2016 business year. In 2009 PLATH GmbH was both ranked 49th.[1] amongst the hundred global market leaders, as well as being named ‘Hidden Champion’ by VDI Nachrichten.

History[]

In 1837 David Filby, an instrument-maker from Husum, founded a trading house for nautical instruments and maps, which was acquired in 1862 by Hamburg citizen Carl Christian Plath. Further reorganisations and investment followed, for example in the company Cassens & Bennecke, which, operating from 1909 under the name Cassens & Plath, was engaged in the sale of navigation devices in Bremerhaven, or Weems und Plath in Annapolis, USA, until C. Plath KG was founded in 1939. In 1950 C. Plath KG set up a department for the development of radio navigation in its so-called Compass House,[2] a symbol of the port of Hamburg for decades. This department was headed by Maximilian Wächtler, regarded as a pioneer in radiolocation and radio and remote intelligence (recipient of the Rudolf-Diesel-Medaille), holding more than sixty patents in this field.[3] Following the incorporation of parts of the signalling company founded in Kiel in 1911, this department eventually became C. Plath GmbH – what is now PLATH GmbH. The PLATH group now encompasses PLATH and its subsidiaries innoSysTec, PROCITEC, PLATH EFT and PLATH AG. The group is now majority-owned by the Handelsgesellschaft Scharfe mbH & Co. KG family business.

C. Plath KG, on the other hand, became part of LITEF GmbH, now known as Northrop Grumman LITEF. Due to its origins and the many similar-sounding names, PLATH GmbH is often wrongly regarded as the successor of C. Plath KG and associated with compasses and other navigation devices. Previous managing directors of C. Plath GmbH included Mr. Pfaff, who was CEO from 1989 to 1997 and who, together with Oberst and D. Grabau, wrote some of the basic literature on communication intelligence,[4] and which is still used today in the training of the German Bundeswehr's electronic warfare section and are standard intelligence literature.

Product lines[]

PLATH GmbH is renowned primarily for the production of visual direction finders for navigation and the location of ships in maritime emergencies. In the days before GPS was invented, these devices were vital for finding one's position in maritime navigation.[5] Together with Telefunken/DEBEG, who utilised components manufactured by PLATH, PLATH GmbH dominated direction-finding technology field in the 1950s and ‘60s.[6] This dominance in the market was so great that radio direction-finding was explained in terms of the SFP7000 in the standard manual for maritime officers[7]

  • Communication intelligence systems
  • Direction-finding and location systems
  • Evaluation systems

Products[]

  • Antennae
  • Radio receivers
  • Direction finder
  • Bearing data compactor
  • Signal analysis software
  • Evaluation software for mass data
  • Management software

Technical milestones[]

Amongst the other innovations introduced by PLATH GmbH are e.g.: the maximum principle of the sight direction finder[6] as well as patents for the first double-channel sight direction finder, procedures for the direction-finding and location of emitters in the event of frequency hopping or, more recently, procedures for the camouflaging of satellite navigation (GPS-Spoofing).[8] More than 200 patents have been registered since the company was founded in 1954.

  • 1953 Development of first officially approved, production-ready double-channel sight direction finder
  • 1958 Modular sight direction finder with plug-in modules for varying frequencies and functions
  • 1960 Development of first remote-controlled sight direction finder
  • 1971 Provision of first automated direction-finding system
  • 1975 Direction finder to find the direction of signals below the noise threshold
  • 1976 First automated radio intelligence system is put into operation
  • 1982 Realisation of real-time point cloud location procedure
  • 1988 Remote-controlled shortwave direction-finding system for German Bundeswehr
  • 1988 First broadband direction finder in the world
  • 1988 Automated direction finder for VTS systems
  • 1989 Prototype of first broadband direction-finder receiver according to Watson-Watt procedure
  • 1996 Patent for GPS spoofing
  • 1997 Introduction of direction-finding data compressor
  • 1999 Foundation of PROCITEC and entry into signal analysis
  • 2003 Completely automated remote-controlled intelligence system
  • 2009 Broadband 7-channel interferometer direction finder for V/UHF
  • 2012 First sensor independent ICM system
  • 2013 First product family for full HF coverage
  • 2014 First sensor independent automated data fusion
  • 2015 First fully automated digital DF-data analyser for full HF coverage

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ 100 Wachstums-Champions im Mittelstand. Archived 2010-08-26 at the Wayback Machine on vdi-nachrichten.com, retrieved 30 April 2010.
  2. ^ Photo of Compass House on einestages.spiegel.de
  3. ^ Bernd Horstmann (Hrsg.): Funkpeilen gestern, heute, morgen. Maximilian Wächtler 80 Jahre, 2nd edition, Hamburg 1981.
  4. ^ Rudolf Grabau, Klaus Pfaff (Hrsg.): Funkpeiltechnik. Franckh’sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1989.
  5. ^ Funknavigation: Peilen. on seefunknetz.de
  6. ^ a b Joachim Beckh: Blitz und Anker. Band 2: Informationstechnik, Geschichte & Hintergründe. Norderstedt 2005.
  7. ^ Müller, Krauß: Handbuch für die Schiffsführung. Band 1, Teil C – Navigation. 8th edition, Berlin 1986.
  8. ^ Database of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office on depatisnet.dpma.de

External links[]

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