Thales to supply French Navy with anti-submarine warfare sonobuoys

French company Thales has signed a contract with the French defense procurement agency (DGA) to supply the French Navy with several hundred SonoFlash sonobuoys. ​

Manufactured in collaboration with French small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the SonoFlash sonobuoys are expected to strengthen France’s strategic and capability ambitions in the field of anti-submarine warfare. ​

These expendable sonar buoys are deployed from a maritime patrol aircraft or a helicopter and enable the detection of submarines. As informed, they are fully interoperable with the FLASH dipping sonar and the CAPTAS family of towed array sonars.

According to Thales, these buoys are the only such models to offer both active and passive modes: they are equipped with a low-frequency emitter and a receiver with high directivity.

Combined with the FLASH dipping sonar, the SonoFlash sonobuoys are expected to enable an airborne platform to search for the presense of submarines over a greater range, and, reportedly, offer greater responsiveness to the evasive manoeuvers of these platforms.

Thales also claimed that the communication systems of the SonoFlash enable all surface ships and aircraft, as well as acoustic support centers equipped with a sonobuoy processing system, to receive the data collected by the buoy.

Sébastien Guérémy, Vice President of Underwater Systems activities at Thales, commented: “Through its SonoFlash sonobuoy and the CAPTAS and FLASH sonars, Thales is proud to contribute to the development of the French anti-submarine warfare sector. The excellence of Thales’s offerings solutions in this field is recognised worldwide and is being put to the service of the French Navy in a context of renewed tensions at sea.”

To note, the French DGA awarded Thales a contract to develop, qualify and manufacture the SonoFlash air-droppable sonobuoy in March 2021.

As for other Thales news, it is worth mentioning that the company is leading a defense project SEACURE to achieve a sovereign European capability in future autonomous anti-submarine and seabed warfare.

The project’s main objective is to develop and demonstrate at sea, by 2028, an integrated system of systems aimed at successfully performing autonomous joint anti-submarine and seabed warfare operations and protecting critical maritime infrastructure.