Thales naval defence capabilities for maritime safety and security solutions for tomorrow 2410121

: Posted On Wednesday, 24 October 2012 21:24

Euronaval 2012 - Show Daily News

Thales naval defence capabilities for maritime safety and security solutions for tomorrow.

With more than 50 years experience in delivering systems, equipment and services to naval forces, Thales offers unrivalled and proven expertise with tangible benefits for client navies around the world. More than 50 navies place their trust in Thales to support their anti-air, surface and underwater combat capabilities and provide effective maritime safety and security solutions for tomorrow. With a total surface area of more than 600 square meters, Thales’s stand (H65 G66) is organised around 5 areas : Above Water Warfare, Underwater Warfare, Information Superiority, Maritime Surveillance System and Services.

Pierre Eric Pommellet, Senior Vice President - Defence Mission Systems Division,
presents Thales' naval defence products and services at Euronaval 2012.

Above Water Warfare

Thales above-water combat systems meet a wide range of needs. Thales’s offer in Above Water Warfare varies from surveillance, command and combat systems to support for weapon systems from both US and European manufacturers. Thales has successfully enhanced this high-value proposition for surface fleets by proactively supporting customers as their missions and operational requirements evolve.

Today, the company is both a trusted instigator of mission-critical combat systems and a design authority and architect for complete naval and maritime solutions. Thales’s solutions encompass all the mission capabilities of a joint seabased force, from anti-air, surface and anti-submarine warfare to peacekeeping operations within multinational coalitions.

The group has the world’s largest portfolio of naval sensors worldwide with Thales Netherland having recently developed the Integrated Mast. Integrating all sensors and antennas in one mast structure solves the problems that most naval ships encounter : sensors often block each other’s view and interfere with each other when operational. The Integrated Mast offers a better performance with lower life cycle costs and is already on board the Royal Netherlands Navy’s HMS Holland.

The Sea-based Ballistic Missile Defence (SMART-L Early Warning Capability) is the Thales solution to counter Ballistic Missiles. SMART-L’s already impressive instrumented range of 400 km will be more than doubled through an innovative upgrade of the sensor. The SMART-L radar is used by navies all around the world including the Netherlands, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and South Korea.

Thales’s combat management system, Tacticos, fulfils all naval operations as well as joint/combined mission management. The system has a fail proof architecture ensuring full functionality and facilitates full integration of the total mission system. Tacticos has an unrivalled installed base and is used by thirty five navies in all regions of the world for all their operations.

Above Water Warfare area of Thales Company booth at Euronaval 2012. The group has the world’s largest portfolio of naval sensors worldwide with Thales Netherland having recently developed the Integrated Mast.

Underwater Warfare

Thales designs and delivers acoustic systems for anti-submarine warfare and antimine warfare. Our solutions and related services are suitable for all types of platforms : submarines, surface combatants, helicopters, maritime patrol aircraft and unmanned naval systems.

With fifty years of experience in undersea warfare, Thales is recognised as an allround leader in undersea warfare for its advanced technologies and ability to adapt to fast-changing operational contexts. The company is the major exporter of sonar and associated systems for navies and air forces and is constantly innovating to provide more powerful, more compact, modular and “user friendly” sonar systems which deliver the best operational capabilities with optimised cost of ownership. The company has delivered, or has been contracted, for more than 300 minehunting sonar systems worldwide.

For many years, Thales has been actively developing unmanned and autonomous naval systems, which are poised to progressively replace conventional solutions. Asemar, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) dedicated to maritime security, is a project funded by the General Directorate for Enterprises (DGE) in France, involving the industrial companies Thales and ECA Robotic and four educational institutions. Thales is responsible for the overall project coordination, the high resolution sonar sensor and associate on-board intelligence processing, as well as the system deployment. The proven at sea high-resolution side-scan sonar with synthetic-aperture array gives the AUV unparalleled measurement and imaging performance.

Improvements in sonar performance are driven by the increasing need for naval forces to operate in the demanding acoustic environment of littoral waters, and by the emergence of new generations of near-silent submarines. Responding to this evolution, Thales has developed the highly successful CAPTAS family of variabledepth sonars, which are available in two ring (Captas-2) and four ring (Captas-4) configurations.

Thales is the world leader in very low-frequency variable depth sonars. CAPTAS is the only low frequency variable depth sonar in service with NATO and major navies.

Thales has also developed the FLASH (Folding Light Acoustic System for Helicopters), a low-frequency wideband sonar system. Initially designed for helicopters, the FLASH system has also been successfully integrated on unmanned surface vehicles for demonstrations. FLASH is the solution of choice for naval forces around the world, including the US Navy, the UK Royal Navy, the French Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, the Norwegian Navy and the United Arab Emirates Navy.

Underwater Warfare area of Thales Company booth at Euronaval 2012. With fifty years of experience in undersea warfare, Thales is recognised as an allround leader in undersea warfare for its advanced technologies and ability to adapt to fast-changing operational contexts.

Information Superiority

The Informational Superiority area will showcase Thales’s ability to connect forces for maritime domain awareness. Thales supports the transformation of naval forces by delivering systems and solutions that ensure that all players acquire, exploit and exchange the required information to act decisively. With its C4ISR solutions, Thales offers naval forces interoperability with land, air, allied and NATO forces.

The Information Superiority area will be divided into the following three zones: Information Acquisition, Information Exploitation and Information Distribution.

In the Information Acquisition zone, Thales proposes a wide range of onboard equipment and systems enabling ships and naval task forces to have a clear view of the operational environment. The Vigile product line is the latest generation of Radar Electronic Support Measure systems. This includes the Vigile LW, which provides a real-time tactical view of the surrounding area and the Vigile DPX, a new radar designed to provide exceptional performance for users with high-end Electronic Warfare requirements. Artemis, a fully passive infrared surveillance system, is able to automatically detect, track and classify both air and surface targets simultaneously. It can be integrated on any type of ships or in shore-based surveillance systems.

Bluegate IFF/ADS-B are the new digital, leading-edge Identification Friend or Foe systems from Thales. They feature all the new civilian and military modes with Mode S, ADS-B and Mk XIIA (including mode 5 standard level 1 and 2).

In the Information Exploitation zone, Thales’s solutions provide decision superiority to operational commanders. The growing importance of maritime cooperation and coordination between the various actors involved (coastal, civilian and naval) calls for a greater level of agility and versatility from C4I systems. Thales’s Integrated Maritime C4I capabilities enable commanders to build and share situational awareness between networked communities of interest. The Geomaker also provides geospatial information services to expert users, delivering high-quality geospatial information services, from maps to high-accuracy digital elevation models.

In the Information Distribution zone, Thales offers solutions that ensure high connectivity as well as secure and interoperable communications. These include Aquilon, the new Fully Integrated Communications System (FICS) including SATCOM communications, which provides an “IP at sea” capability. Aquilon enables platforms to participate in Network Centric Operations and embeds Naval Force Intranet capability.

Information Superiority area of Thales Company booth at Euronaval 2012. In the Information Acquisition zone, Thales proposes a wide range of onboard equipment and systems enabling ships and naval task forces to have a clear view of the operational environment.

Maritime Surveillance System

Thales’s Maritime Surveillance System area offers a comprehensive range of flexible solutions from equipment to systems for effective monitoring of maritime safety, security and surveillance activities. These include shore based Maritime Surveillance System Solutions, which support the diverse needs of public and private authorities in charge of safety and security missions at sea.

Thales’s Satellite Surveillance Solutions use a high performance satellite constellation for worldwide maritime surveillance, providing large-scale detection of cooperative and non cooperative vessels. This is of great importance as France is the country with the largest maritime domain in Europe. There is thus a great need to monitor and protect it. A better maritime surveillance is requested by civilian and military end users and space systems are the most relevant ones to cover and monitor huge areas such as open seas.

In the domain of Coastal Surveillance, Thales’s long range coastal surveillance radar, the Coast Watcher 100, ensures the detection and tracking of surface and low altitude air targets. The radar, available in civil or military version, is also the new market reference for maintenance policy thanks to its fault tolerant architecture and simplified maintenance process. Even in a harsh environment, the radar has outstanding small target detection.

AMASCOS, a mission-proven Thales airborne maritime situation and control system, will also be on display at Euronaval. The system ensures the success of maritime surveillance, anti-surface and anti submarine warfare missions. It is designed for all types of platforms and combines a powerful tactical command and control subsystem based on the latest generation sensors and radars.

Maritime Surveillance System area of Thales Company booth at Euronaval 2012. Thales’s Maritime Surveillance System area offers a comprehensive range of flexible solutions from equipment to systems for effective monitoring of maritime safety, security and surveillance activities.

Services

Thales has earned an unrivalled service record with more than 50 navies around the world. For each customer, Thales covers the complete range of the support spectrum to suit increasing operational constraints and optimises in-service support cost. The Thales services offer is innovative and modular, tailored to each customer’s requirements.

CALAS is Thales’s answer to minimise its customer’s risks and costs by using a lightweight autonomous training target for Anti Submarine Warfare exercises at sea. A highly realistic simulation of submarine acoustic signatures and kinematics enables CALAS to be the light solution in sonar training.

Thanks to DARWIN-S, the in-service life of systems can be extended and optimised. Thales’s innovative approach in technology insertion offers customers a comprehensive and affordable range of services with incremental upgrade options.

NEPTUNE, the high-fidelity training service for airborne maritime surveillance, helps to prepare for tomorrows missions thanks to its latest simulation and training technologies. Thales can thus offer its maritime patrol customers a full range of technico-operational services.

Another example of Thales’s expertise in the services domain is NEWTON, a best of breed electronic warfare training service. It allows navy crews to practice electronic warfare drills regardless of whether their platform has a built-in defence aids suite, without the need for a costly electronic warfare range.

Smart Care is the advanced and proven Thales availability concept for complex systems. Its purpose is to enable global and optimised fleet management, at the best cost and through a modular, adaptable and progressive offer. There will be three demonstrations on the stand, related to Smart Care: an operational overview, an illustration of the availability engineering expertise that is required, as well as the interconnection of multiple information systems to support availability commitment in complex defence systems.

Thales Company is equiping more than 500 ships all over the world from more than 50 navies.