Thales intends to develop cooperation with the Polish industry
Thales declares the development of cooperation with the Polish industry. The company qualified for further talks in the frigate Miecznik (eng. Swordfish) programme offers a combat management system for the new ships.
– Thales is one of four companies shortlisted as a potential combat management system (CMS) supplier for the three frigates in the Miecznik programme. It offers mainly the CMS TACTICOS system and sensors – in the case of the frigates, these are radars and sonars – Thales Polska CEO Magdalena Nizik told the Polish Press Agency.
She noted Thales is part of a U.K. bid to provide solutions for the Royal Navy’s T31 type frigate project. The three comprise Babcock – this company is also one of three potential suppliers of the new ship’s platform for the Swordfish project – as well as MBDA and Thales.
Nizik stressed that „TACTICOS is an open system, which can be integrated with all offered weapon systems”. She recalled the PGZ’s various variants of the frigate configuration presented in a feasibility study delivered to the Armament Inspectorate on 10 December.
„All systems can be integrated, and no combat management system is linked to the weapon system. In the ongoing proceedings, the ship’s platform, combat management system and armament are subjects of separate bids” – she pointed out.
She also referred to the requirement for the largest possible contribution from the Polish industry to the frigate programme and the Narew short-range air defence system.
– In the Miecznik and Narew programmes, the Polish party expects them to be more than just a technical offer on the product for the military, but also an offer of cooperation with Polish industry and technology transfer. For example, Thales has been present in the maritime industry on the Polish market for over ten years with programmes such as the equipping of three Orkan missile ships with our radars and CMS and the Ślązak patrol vessel – the Polish Thales chief emphasized.
„We have been cooperating with OBR Centrum Techniki Morskiej (CTM) in Gdynia for a long time. The employees of this company are very familiar with the TACTICOS system, which they have been co-creating and taking part in its development for some time. In addition, Thales has agreed with CTM to provide programming services for this system. Therefore, it would be natural for us to develop this cooperation further and raise it to a higher level” – she said.
In her opinion, a „system engineering” service would be introduced. „CTM could independently manage this system and integrate it with other weapon systems in Poland. It would be a step towards autonomy and sovereignty of this solution for Poland”- she pointed out.
– Once our cooperation with the Polish maritime industry becomes a permanent part of our integrated global supply chain, we may work together on Thales solutions and products for third markets.
The programme on the frigates destined for the Polish Navy is to be carried out by the PGZ Miecznik Consortium, which includes the PGZ S.A., PGZ Stocznia Wojenna S.A. (Naval Shipyard) and Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. Out of the three conceptual designs prepared by the consortium, a variant is to be selected for further work.
The supply of the platform – a basis for the Polish frigate – was offered by thyssenkrupp Marine Systems from Germany, Navantia from Spain and Babcock from the U.K. Thales, Navantia, Leonardo, and Saab have been pre-qualified as four potential suppliers of an integrated combat management system for the frigates.
source: PortalMorski.pl
