Following the signing of the contract between OCCAR and Naviris (a Fincantieri and Naval Group joint venture) for the Mid-Life Upgrade of the four Horizon-class units in service with the Italian and French navies, a sub-contract was signed in August 2023 between SIGEN (a consortium between Elettronica and Thales) and Naviris for the modernization of the Electronic Warfare (EW) system. This contract represents a continuation of what has already been successfully initiated in the Horizon and FREMM programs and consolidates the collaborative relationship between the two companies for the supply of cutting-edge EW systems capable of successfully confronting current and future operational needs, with very balanced contributions from both companies.
Philippe Duhamel, Executive Vice-President, Defence Mission Systems, Thales: “We are very proud to reinforce our collaboration and partnership with ELT Group by the provision of our unique Electronic Warfare (EW) system for the Italian and French Navies, taking into account the new and modern stakes and threats of the electromagnetic spectrum.”
Domitilla Benigni, CEO and COO of Elettronica said “The contract for the EWS Mid-Life Upgrading (MLU) of the Horizon Units has a twofold and significant value for our company: on the one hand, we consolidate our presence of excellence in EW on board naval units for the Italian and French Navies and, at the same time, we consolidate the long and fruitful collaboration with Thales. Both aspects consolidate ELT Group’s convinced contribution toward European Defence.”
In detail, the EW system integrates into the new Naval Units the excellence developed by both companies in their respective national naval programs. The full digital Radar Electronic Support Measures (RESM) component developed and qualified for the FDI (Frégate de Défense et d’Intervention) program for the French Navy will be integrated with ELT Group’s Radar Electronic Counter Measures component developed and qualified for the PPA (Patrol Multipurpose Offshore Units) for the Italian Navy. The Communication Electronic Support Measures and Electronic Warfare Management Unit subsystems, on the other hand, will be national variants, provided by each company for its own Navy.
By the experience gained through participation in major European Defense programs including Eurofighter Typhoon, FREMM, PPA today ELT Group is present in more than 30 countries in the World with more than 3000 systems supplied, and also participates in the project for the sixth generation avionics platform GCAP (Global Combat Air Programme). ELT Group is headquartered in Italy, but has a presence in 11 countries located on 3 continents through sales offices and companies of strategic importance and local law in Germany and Saudi Arabia. Also part of the ELT Group are CY4GATE, which specializes in Cyber security and Cyber Intelligence, and E4Life, Italy’s first Biodefense company.
Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global technology leader serving the aerospace, defence and digital identity and security markets. Our solutions help to make the world safer, greener and more inclusive. the company invest close to €4 billion a year in research and development to drive innovation in key areas such as quantum technologies, far edge computing, 6G and cybersecurity. ?Thales has 77,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2022, the company generated sales of €17.6 billion.
