Joanna Crews
Thales has secured a potential 42-month contract to research and develop sonar technology for the French navy’s nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine.
France’s defense procurement agency asked Thales to build a sonar system for installation on the future SNLE 3G SSBN submarine, Thales said Feb. 7.
The company will also assess fourth-generation flank arrays as well as create a bow-mounted antenna and a sonar interceptor with antenna processing and threat classification algorithms as part of the contract.
The award follows a contract Thales received in 2016 to build an optical technology-based ALRO towed linear array.
The company also supports the development of other French naval defense platforms such as SNLE 2G nuclear-powered attack submarines, ATL2 maritime patrol aircraft and SLAM-F mine countermeasures.
