Thales to deliver sonar suite for future Dutch submarine fleet
PARIS — French defense-electronics maker Thales won a contract to supply the entire sonar and acoustics suite for the Royal Netherlands Navy Orka-class submarine fleet to be built by Naval Group, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
The submarine sonar contract is the first in 15 years for Thales outside its core underwater markets of France, the U.K., the U.S. and Australia, said Emmanuel Michaud, vice president for submarines and surface vessels at Thales. The sensor suite for the four Dutch submarines will form the basis for Thales's export offer for other upcoming submarine programs, he said.
The contract 'is our stepping stone to a new generation of export-contract submarine systems,' Michaud said. 'That's why this contract is absolutely key for us, because that's the first one of hopefully a long series of contracts. The market is pretty active now in the submarines.'
Thales signed an agreement with Naval Group to supply the four sonar suites, with a contract value somewhere between €100 million ($109 million) and €1 billion, according to Michaud, who declined to give an exact price. 'Let say that we are extremely happy with this contract.' Thales won a contract from BAE Systems in 2020 to provide the sonar system for the U.K.'s four Dreadnought nuclear submarines with a value of £330 million ($428 million).
The sensor suite will be 'heavily derived' from the system equipping the French Suffren-class nuclear attack submarines, according to Michaud. The same Thales team working on delivering the last three of the six submarines in the Suffren class will work on the Dutch contract, he said.
The Netherlands a year ago picked Naval Group to build four conventionally-powered attack submarines in a project worth as much as €5.65 billion to replace the country's aging Walrus-class subs. The Dutch boats will be based on the same Barracuda program from Naval Group that produced the Suffren class.
'We had Barracude, we invested a lot thanks to the French MoD and French Navy, and this gives us a competitive edge,' Michaud said. 'We keep improving our product with this export-contract submarine with very, very tough requirements from the Dutch Navy.'
Most of the products included in the sonar suite for the Dutch submarines already exist, and are being progressively improved with regards to hardware and software, he said.
The first two submarines in the Dutch contract are scheduled to be delivered by 2034, and 'we are working full speed already to be on time for the delivery of the first submarine,' Michaud said. He said that given the complexity of everything that needs to be assembled, 'I will be happy in 2034 when everything is delivered.'
Thales says it's the world leader in sonar, equipping around 50 submarines and with a share of around 50% of the accessible market. Customers include the French, British and Austalian navies, as well as Singapore, Chile and Malaysia.
Thales will delivery 'the full array of what can be installed on a submarine as far as acoustics are concerned' for the Dutch boats, including main antennas such as the bow-mounted cylindrical array and the flank array sonar, according to Michaud. Other equipment will include an intercept array on the top of the submarine and a mine and obstacle-avoidance sonar that can also do seabed mapping
The French company is working with Dutch company Optical11 to develop a towed linear antenna using optical technology that would be included in the Thales sonar suite. The Amsterdam-based firm says it's the world leader in fiber optic sensing technology for ultra-sensitive early warning systems.
The technology readiness level for the optical array 'is not yet at a stage that would allow us to go full production from day one,' Michaud said. Thales and Optical11 agreed on a feasibility study in November that will last most of 2025, with the goal of including the technology on the Dutch submarines. 'It's a very challenging technology, but very promising.'
'If this is successful, and we are working hard to make it successful, we will definitely adopt this technology or this product for our export-country contracts,' Michaud said. He said that France's defense ministry is also developing a optical towed array, however this is proprietary 'and we will never be able to export this.'
The Dutch submarines will be fitted with a double row of flank array sonar as a cost-effective way to increase the sensor surface and improve detection, as developing a new array would have been 'extremely expensive' and would have taken too long, Michaud said.
Regarding a plan by Poland to buy submarines, Michaud said Thales doesn't comment on market opportunities led by Naval Group. He said the Thales strategy is to offer a 'very versatile' sonar suite that can fulfill the requirements of many customers, and avoid additional development that would increase cost, time and risk.
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