Czech Minister of Defence Jaromír Zůna got introduced to ERA's defence technologies live

The Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic (MoD), Jaromír Zůna, visited ERA company as part of his travels to Czech defence industry enterprises. The company develops and manufactures globally recognized passive surveillance systems (PSS ), which have been also used by the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic (ACR).
 
The Minister of Defence met with the company's CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors Ondřej Chlost at ERA's headquarters in Pardubice. Subsequently, Jakub Thomas and other specialists introduced him to the technologies produced by ERA and their contribution to the country's defence. During an excursion to the company's R&D centre and production site, the minister had the opportunity to see the VERA-NG and PLESS systems and a live demonstration of their operation.

According to Jaromír Zůna, ERA is a traditional and key partner for ACR in the field of modern airspace monitoring and air traffic control. A year ago, ERA and Czech MoD signed a memorandum of cooperation aimed at supporting the development and integration of modern PSS into the command-and-control system (C2) of ACR for the benefit of the country's air defence.

The Czech soldiers currently use two ERA systems called DPET, which represent the latest version of the VERA-NG system created on the basis of their specific requirement. ERA has also supplied a similar system to NATO.

The latest system, which was contracted with MoD in 2025, is the over the horizon direction finder PLESS, which can track and identify targets beyond the radio horizon making it a great addition to the DPET system for early warning, which is a key advantage for air defence units!

Passive surveillance systems have a long tradition in the Czech Army. The first generation of this technology was Kopáč system in the 1960s. Gradually, the next generations were developed: RAMONA system, legendary TAMARA system known to public, and VERA system in various modifications.