Thales Targets Sales in Russia
Firm Sees Opportunity in Aircraft Optronics Gear
Paris - Thales is looking for export sales of its airborne optronics equipment on to Russian-built fighters, given that the U.S. market is effectively closed to foreign suppliers of such gear, CEO Denis Ranque said.
That weakness in the fleet of Sukhoi and MiG fighters has opened up opportunities for selling products such as the Damocles targeting pod and OSF infrared search-and-track equipment fitted on the Rafale fighter from France's Dassault Aviation, Ranque says.
"Optronics is a strong exporter," he said. The optronics business generates an annual 500 million euros ($797 million), of which half is in exports.
The OSF gear offers a long-range passive sensor that makes it hard to detect, Ranque said. The Rafale is the only fighter aircraft equipped with that capability, he added.
"The export prospects for the Rafale are reasonable now," he said.
"The Russians build good aircraft, but the electronic equipment is not always of the highest quality, clients tell us," Ranque said in a speech at the inauguration last month of a new facility for the company's optronics business unit at Elancourt, on the western outskirts of the capital.
Competition in the world market is tough, however, with prices for optronic equipment falling by 50 percent in the last four or five years because of the collapse of the dollar, Ranque said.
Optronics are a high-technology area driven by precision and a need to avoid collateral damage to targets on the ground, said Jean-Pierre Maulny, deputy director of think tank Institut des Relations Internationales et Startégiques here.
"This is a technology trend followed by the developed countries," he said. "It is a utilization of high technology against asymmetric threats."
As for Thales' move to the Elancourt site, which already houses other activities, this is in line with the company's search for cost savings by cutting overhead, an analyst at a French brokerage said.
Thales has also sold land-based infrared cameras for Russian-built tanks sold to foreign armies, and last year sold its Catherine product directly to the Russian Army for the first time. As part of international support for its optronics business, Thales recently announced an agreement with Vologda Optical and Mechanical Zavod (VOMZ), which allows the local Russian partner to maintain the Catherine IR camera installed on Russian Army tanks, as well as units sold in export programs.
Chief Executive Pascale Sourisse of the Land and Joint division said the world market for optronics is worth about 6 billion euros and grows 5 percent per year.
"Thales ranks fourth worldwide, behind American companies," she said.
Selling the Damocles
Export sales of the Damocles targeting pod so far comprise Malaysia, which operates Sukhoi Su-30 fighters; the United Arab Emirates, which flies the Mirage 2000-9 from Dassault Aviation; and Saudi Arabia, which has a mixed fleet of British and American planes.
The Saudi Air Force is flying the Damocles on its Tornado aircraft in development flights, a Thales executive said. A second executive said the Damocles was undergoing certification flights with the Saudis.
On the viewing tower of the Elancourt facility, there are two Damocles pods aligned, one painted in desert sand camouflage color, as used by the Saudi fleet. The other pod is in colors used by the French Air Force. The pod's infrared camera shows the Eiffel Tower on the display screen, although the iconic monument cannot be seen with the naked eye from the same location.
The Damocles product competes with the Sniper pod from Lockheed Martin and Litening from Israel's Rafael. Thales views the American equipment as its main competitor.
Alain Picard, director of strategy and marketing for Thales' Land and Joint division, said the company cooperates with MiG and Sukhoi in its export efforts.
The pylon for the pod is available with an integrated forward looking infrared (FLIR) camera, to give the pilot a continuous view ahead, as the main IR camera in the targeting ball rotates to track the target as the plane flies away.
Each Damocles pod costs several million euros. The pod is currently deployed in Afghanistan on the modernized Super Etendard fighters flown by the French Navy, operating from the Kandahar air base. The equipment will eventually be fitted on the Rafale F3 next year.
France has ordered 30 of the Damocles pods, 20 for the modernized Super Etendard and 10 for the Rafale. Thales has delivered 60 units to clients since it began sales of the equipment around 2003-4 and has 100 on the order books. The Elancourt site can produce 40 pods a year and is working at full capacity.
In general, one third of an air force fighter fleet might be equipped with a targeting pod, Picard said. For the third-generation Reco NG pod, the number deployed would be in single digits. Each Reco NG pod weighs about 1 metric ton, is used for tactical and strategic reconnaissance, and allows instant transmission of video to ground stations.
The OSF search-and-track equipment fitted on the Rafale F2 has an optical laser channel and an infrared camera.
For the new A400M military airlifter, Thales has developed an improved vision system using an infrared camera, which it hopes to sell into the civil airliner market. ■
E-mail: ptran@defensenews.com.
Help
