THALES IS One of The World’s Major Suppliers of Naval Radar and CMS Products.

The Thales firm produces the Herakles radar used on the Marine Nationale (French Navy) FREMM (Fregate multi-mission) multi-mission frigates. Herakles is a three-dimensional, Sband 3-4 GHz radar which has a range of up to 80Km against surface targets, and 250Km for air threats. The radar provides simulateous air and surface search, detection of missiles and fire control for the vessels’ weapons. Together with its electro-opitcal systems and communications, the radar is linked to the ships’ CMS which is based on DCNS’s SENIT family.

A version of SENIT, known as SENIT-8, outfits the Franco-Italian Horizon-class frigates which also deploy a G-band 4-6GHz EMPAR multi-function phased array radar, plus an L-band (1-2Ghz), Thales/Selex S1850 air and surface search radar, mounted on the vessels’ aft mast and a Selex RASS S-band radar positioned on the forward mast, along with the EMPAR system. In addition to producing radar, Selex has the responsibility for manufacturing CMS suites, most notably the Italian Navy’s IPN family of systems.

Like Selex, Thales also manufactures CMS products such as the firm’s TACTICOS family. Among other vessels, TACTICOS has been selected for the SIGMA (Ship Integrated Geometrical Modularity) frigates of the Royal Moroccan Navy. Using an open systems architecture, TACTICOS is scalable to vessels of all sizes, from missile boats up to destroyers and frigates. The CMS fuses together information from radar, electro-optical and sonar systems to provide a detailed picture of the immediate environment, handling
up to 1,500 tracks simultaneously.

Another of Thales’s CMS products is the SEWACO-XI which equips the De Zeven Provinciën class frigates of the Koninklijke Marine (Royal Netherlands Navy). SEWACO is built around the company’s TACTICOS (see above) product. Originally developed for the Royal Netherlands Navy Tromp class frigates which were nicknamed ‘Kojak’ because of their large, smooth radome positioned aft of the bridge, SEWACO has been cycled through various versions in Dutch service culminating in the current SEWACO-XI configuration.

Thales is also providing radar for the SIGMA vessels in the form of the S-band SMART-S Mk.2 surveillance radar (which also equips the German Navy’s Type-123 Brandenburg class frigates where it is linked to an
Atlas Elektronick/ Paramax SATIR CMS. Optimized for surface com batants such as frigates, destroyers and
Landing Platform Docks (LPDs), the SMARTS has a range of up to 250Km. In addition, the company builds the SMART-L radar offering up to 400Km of coverage and an elevation angle of up to 70°. In conjunction with ITT Corporation, Thales is marketing the radar in the United States for the US Navy and Coast Guard applications, and also for possible Foreign Military Sales from that country.

The SMART-L is essentially a SMART-S, but with a lighter weight and smaller size. A so called Extended Long Range module is available for the SMART-L which increases the radar’s ‘already impressive range’ according to official Thales literature. SMART-L has proven to be a popular product, selling to the German,
Danish and Korean navies.