ICSITA

ICSITA (Institutul de Cercetare Științifică și Inginerie Tehnologică al Armatei, the Army Institute for Scientific Research and Technological Engineering) in Bucharest was set up on 1 April 1968 as ITCPA (Institutul Tehnic de Cercetări și Proiectări al Armatei); it was renamed ICITA in 1979, ICSITA in 1986, ICDA (Institutul de Cercetare-Dezvoltare al Armatei) in 1991 and ACTTM (Agenția de Cercetare pentru Tehnică și Tehnologii Militare) in 1998 [1]. It was set up to research new equipment for signals, armour, artillery and engineering and for the mechanisation and automation of command [2]. For experimental models, prototypes and small series it had design workshops and a special (micro)production base [2].

Signals equipment

The main maker of its wire-communication designs was Electromagnetica, chiefly its Special Production Factory [1]. ICSITA designed the F-1600, F-1603 and F-1604 field telephones; the F-1612, F-1613, F-1640 and F-1641 manual field exchanges and the TS-603 for secure links, made in 1970–1985; the F-2103 automatic digital telegraph exchange; the F-3030, F-3090, F-3031, F-3091, F-3020, F-3010-24 SF and F-3011-8 telephone multiplex equipment; and the F-3140 and F-3170 telegraph multiplexers, all made by Electromagnetica [1]. It also designed the R1260 VHF radio station and the R-4010 and R-4010 D radio relay stations [1]. After 1968 it became the main body researching, designing and making information protection equipment, among it the TS-580 for telephone channels and the TS-520 for telegraph channels [1]. With Electromagnetica it developed the F-1000 alerting system and, after 1990, its microprocessor-based successor F-1001; it also designed the R-1000 PEGAS personnel alerting equipment and the STIG information system of the border troops [1]. For the army’s permanent signal network (STAR/RTP) it wrote the feasibility study and was general designer; the pilot minisystem was completed and accepted in 1998 [1].

Radar

The institute had no radar work at first: a sensors laboratory was set up in 1974 and a radar laboratory in 1978, which from 1980 had research teams for microwaves, transmission, reception, antennas, indicators and automation; from 1990 it had computers and an Internet connection [2]. In 1975 the radio-technical troops’ command gave it four research themes for command automation sets, the C-751, C-752, C-801 and C-802 [3]. Its projects included the AP-cm and AP-dm parametric amplifiers; the ME-74, RCT-77 and RCT-5 tactical field radars and the RIP-84 portable miniradar; the RIH-IRIS low-altitude radar; the RN-1 river and coastal navigation radar; the ATR-1 ground recognition equipment; the START-1M low-altitude radar; and the modernisation of the Soviet radars in service with automatic target extractors [2]. It also selected, acquired and sited the AN/FPS-117E(T) 3D digital radars from Lockheed Martin, developed the Air Force C4I system around the Air Sovereignty Operation Center (ASOC) and started the project for producing the TPS-79(R) Gap Filler radars in Romania [2]. Several of its radar designs were put into production at IEI [4]. From 1998 ACTTM’s Centre for Scientific Research in Electronics, Informatics and Communications (CCȘEIC) managed the radar and command-control projects [2].