Thales to work on French Navy’s future ballistic missile submarine sonar tech

French defense and technology company Thales announced it was awarded a 42-month contract from the French defense procurement agency (DGA) to carry out a set of studies and technological developments in support of a sonar system that will equip the third-generation of the French nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SNLE 3G).

The contract follows an award announced in 2016 to develop the ALRO towed linear array based on optical technology.

According to Thales, these developments take into account current and future threat environment and support Thales’s efforts to complete design and qualification of a large antenna system and related processing capabilities made possible by advances in algorithms and the digital revolution.

This new research and development program builds on the results of studies launched under France’s two previous defense spending plans.

It will include final validation of the fourth-generation flank arrays and the development of a new sonar interceptor, with latest-generation adaptive antenna processing and threat classification algorithms as well as an innovative bow-mounted antenna concept.