OREANDA-NEWS. February 08, 2018. The French defence procurement agency (DGA) has awarded Thales a 42-month contract to conduct a set of studies and technological developments for a sonar system to be equipped on France’s future third-generation nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SNLE 3G).

Key points

  • DGA has awarded Thales a 42-month study and development contract for the sonar system for France’s future SSBN submarine.
  • Developments made possible by the digital revolution pursued by Thales.
  • Contract strengthens the naval defence technological and industrial base in France.

These developments take into account current and future threat environment and support Thales's efforts to complete design and qualification of a large antenna system and related processing capabilities made possible by advances in algorithms and the digital revolution.

This new research and development programme builds on the results of studies launched under France’s two previous defence spending plans. It will include final validation of the fourth-generation flank arrays and the development of a new sonar interceptor, with latest-generation adaptive antenna processing and threat classification algorithms as well as an innovative bow-mounted antenna concept.