June 4, 2020 | International, Naval
PARIS – France remained in the world's top five defense exporters in 2019 with €8.3 billion ($9.3 billion) worth of contracts signed, notably with European partners Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary and Spain, according to a defense ministry report published this week.
Half of these contracts were in the naval sector, a very sharp rise from the average 10 percent this sector represented in the past. The contract to replace the mine-hunters for the navies of Belgium and the Netherlands, a program piloted by Belgium on behalf of the two nations, accounted for more than 40 percent of naval sector sales.
These sales also partially explain the very sharp rise in 2019 of exports to EU member states: 42 percent of the total, a figure that rises to almost 45 percent if one includes European non-EU members, compared to 25 percent in 2018 and an average 10-15 percent in previous years. The next major export client was the United Arab Emirates (with the Gowind corvette contract) but the 30 percent share of exports in the Africa/Middle East zone was 20 points down compared to 2018 but also compared to the average of the past decade.
The report notes that France's exports are, above all, aimed at preserving its own security by establishing bilateral cooperations with European countries and strengthening transatlantic ties. The bilateral cooperations are high-level, long-term, intergovernmental agreements and exports to help the partner nations strengthen and adapt their military capacity. The sale of 16 H225M helicopters and 20 H145M helicopters to Hungary, of two telecommunication satellites to Spain and of the mine-hunters to Belgium and the Netherlands illustrate this philosophy.
These exports are on par with those of the past decade “and were obtained in a particularly competitive context with the confirmation of U.S. supremacy and the emergence of new major exporters (notably China).” The parliamentary report also notes that Russia “occupies a very strong position on markets with limited financial resources [...] notably to conquer clients outside its traditional sphere of influence. Over the past few years, Russia has strengthened its position on the Asian markets, in the Middle-East and in north Africa.”
There were 4,634 export licenses delivered in 2019, either for transfer of equipment (within the European Union) or for export (to all non-EU countries). But each license does not necessarily mean that an export took place, they merely give the framework for the authorization and establish the conditions for the export. Twenty-five license requests were turned down and some 110 were withdrawn by the applicant.
March 28, 2023 | International, Naval
Reloading a vertical launching system is a challenging maneuver, given the crane must hold missile canisters vertically, while slowly lowering explosives.
May 20, 2020 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
Cannes, May 18, 2020 – The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded two contracts to Thales Alenia Space, the joint company between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), concerning EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service). These contracts, fully financed under the European Commission H2020 programme concern study phases on the system evolution. They will call on Thales Alenia Space's expertise as program prime contractor for over 25 years to study and develop upgrades for the EGNOS satellite navigation system. The first contract concerns possible upgrades for EGNOS aeronautical services, designed to improve performances in order to increase landing safety under limited visibility conditions (from current CAT-I to CAT-II), over the current EGNOS footprint, focused on Europe. The second contract will study changes required to extend its aeronautical services worldwide. Based on state-of-the-art technologies, this upgrade will call on the A-RAIM (Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring) concept and the global coverage of the Galileo satnav constellation. RAIM is an already deployed technology that assesses the integrity of signals in the receivers that are part of a global positioning system, mainly GPS. Galileo will now be incorporated in the advanced version of this concept, A-RAIM, to provide enhanced horizontal guidance performance, not possible with RAIM using only GPS. The new concept would thus provide “safety of life” aeronautical services, including approaches with vertical guidance, thanks to inputs from GPS and Galileo via EGNOS. “Today's contracts are key for satellite navigation in Europe and bolster Thales Alenia Space's European leadership in state of art satellite navigation systems, including Safety of Life services”, said Benoit Broudy, head of the Navigation business at Thales Alenia Space in France. He added: “Our successes on export markets, as in South Korea, validate our innovative approach that allows us to offer increasingly powerful and agile solutions to meet the evolving requirements of customers from around the world.” About EGNOS EGNOS, a European Union flagship program, is a satellite navigation system designed to improve positioning signals delivered by GPS. Developed by Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor, EGNOS was first deployed in 2005, began operating in open service mode in 2009 and provided Safety of Life service starting in 2011. The GNSS R&D activities are financed by the European Commission H2020 programme. They are managed by the European Space Agency through a delegation agreement from the European Commission. Safety of Life service, a success in export markets The EGNOS Safety of Life service is used to carry out precision airport approaches, especially landings, without requiring ground guidance systems. Building on its expertise in this field, Thales Alenia Space won a contract in 2016 from the Korean space agency to supply the Korean Augmentation Satellite System (KASS). With its Safety of Life capability, KASS is a regional Korean navigation system that will initially be used for aviation. It will provide critical services at several points of each flight, especially landing, so that, airports no longer need ground landing aid facilities. Along the same lines, in early 2019 ASECNA, the air navigation safety agency for Africa and Madagascar, chose Thales Alenia Space to handle a Phase B project that will include the supply of a pre-operational service in 2020 for a Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) in sub-Saharan Africa, to provide an optimized satellite-based solution to support the growing air traffic in this region. The project recently took a major step forward, with validation of the system's architecture and main performance characteristics. This study is being carried out jointly by ASECNA and Thales Alenia Space, with funding from the European Union, as part of an ambitious program to develop the aviation sector in Africa. Set for completion by the end of the year, it also includes the supply of a pre-operational service, along with demonstrations of how to use the service in conjunction with partner airlines. Thales Alenia Space has now completed acceptance testing of the demonstrator, which will subsequently be deployed at various sites. ABOUT THALES ALENIA SPACE Drawing on over 40 years of experience and a unique combination of skills, expertise and cultures, Thales Alenia Space delivers cost-effective solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. Governments and private industry alike count on Thales Alenia Space to design satellite-based systems that provide anytime, anywhere connections and positioning, monitor our planet, enhance management of its resources, and explore our Solar System and beyond. Thales Alenia Space sees space as a new horizon, helping to build a better, more sustainable life on Earth. A joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space also teams up with Telespazio to form the parent companies' Space Alliance, which offers a complete range of services. Thales Alenia Space posted consolidated revenues of approximately 2.15 billion euros in 2019 and has around 7,700 employees in nine countries. www.thalesaleniaspace.com THALES ALENIA SPACE – PRESS CONTACTS Sandrine Bielecki Tel: +33 (0)4 92 92 70 94 sandrine.bielecki@thalesaleniaspace.com Catherine des Arcis Tel: +33 (0)4 92 92 72 82 catherine.desarcis@thalesaleniaspace.com Marija Kovac Tel: +39 (0)6 415 126 85 marija.kovacsomministrato@thalesaleniaspace.com View source version on Thales: https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/space/press-release/thales-alenia-space-wins-two-contracts-esa-study-future-upgrades
January 16, 2020 | International, Naval
By: Chiara Vercellone WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit has selected L3Harris Technologies to provide the Navy with an underwater drone for use in expeditionary undersea missions, according to a Jan. 14 news release from the company. As part of the contract, L3Harris will deliver for testing an Iver4-900 PW unmanned undersea vehicle, as well as two field swappable modular payload sections, which, along with additional sensors, will allow the vehicle to detect, classify, localize and identify targets on the ocean floor, the release said. An earlier version of the drone was already sent to the Navy, but under this contract, the company will deliver a version modified to fit the Navy's requirements, a company spokeswoman told Defense News. She would not share the value of the contract. “The Iver4 is leading the next generation of small class UUVs,” said Daryl Slocum, vice president of unmanned maritime systems at L3Harris Technologies. “This platform has been custom-built to address the needs of the Expeditionary Mine Countermeasures and Explosive Ordnance Disposal communities.” The contract award comes as the Navy seeks to bolster its unmanned inventory. Congress recently approved the purchase of two large unmanned surface vessels for the service. In 2019, L3Harris received a contract from the University of Southern Mississippi for an older version of the underwater drone to be used by the university's school of ocean science and engineering. https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2020/01/15/l3harris-to-deliver-iver4-underwater-drone-to-us-navy