A stone’s throw from the Brest naval base where French nuclear submarines sleep, Thales is intensifying the manufacture of sonars intended to track enemy ships underwater, yellow “fish” for which demand is exploding on the oceans.
Expanded, the workshops are running at full capacity. The high-technology and defense group recently sold the hundredth Captas towed sonar, its flagship product, which equips seventeen navies, including that of the United States.
“To take into account the increase in demand”, production capacity will be multiplied “by 2 to 2.5” between 2024 and 2026, assures Emmanuel Michaud, vice-president of the submarine sector at Thales. A dynamic driven by the increase in defense budgets in Europe in the face of Russia’s increasingly threatening posture.
Thales, which employs more than 1,800 people in Brest, has recruited 120 people there in 2024 and the same number of hires is planned for 2025.
– Hear the invisible –
A submarine is only good as long as it is invisible: as soon as it is spotted, it becomes a target.
“Locating and identifying the enemy submarine gives you a significant strategic advantage,” Kai Balder, specialist in anti-submarine warfare at the Roland Berger consultancy, explains to AFP.
Recently the French multi-mission frigate Alsace equipped with Captas escorted a Russian submarine in the Atlantic for several weeks.
“Sonars directly affect deterrence. Anti-submarine warfare is a determining factor in the credibility” of a nuclear power, explains Admiral Eric Chaperon, defense advisor to Thales, to AFP.
In this fight, Thales is “among the best sonar suppliers in the world, not only in France, but also in the United Kingdom, and even in certain parts of the United States which traditionally prefer their national manufacturers”, notes Kai Balder.
Launched from the back of a frigate, the Captas scans the depths by emitting very low frequency waves at great distances to detect echoes in the depths.
“The submarine may be silent, but it will be hit,” says Eric Chaperon.
In addition, the Thales Sonoflash sonar buoy, which can be transported by helicopter then dropped into the water, refines the location.
This device “makes it possible to detect, track and, if necessary, engage a weapon once the target is identified,” explains Emmanuel Michaud.
– “Attractive” market –
Thales is also developing tools to combat underwater mines, relying on drones to keep crews away from danger.
The Tsam towed sonar, towed on a surface drone, can find objects “on the order of a bank card underwater”, explains Anthony Loussaut, responsible for sonars for the Franco-British MMCM mine countermeasures project aimed at replacing traditional mine hunters with autonomous systems.
Thales, which has already sold more than 300 mine-hunting sonars to around fifty navies, delivered for the first time an autonomous system to the French Navy at the end of 2024 then to the Royal Navy in February 2025. Their entry into service is planned for 2026.
But competition is raging, recognizes Benoît Drier de Laforte, Thales mine warfare advisor.
The Franco-Belgian group Exail, which manufactures mine-hunting marine drones, thus claims cheaper solutions and an order book “multiplied by ten” since a contract in 2019 with the Belgian and Dutch navies.
“Thales has a real end-to-end integration capacity, they know how to coordinate drones, connectivity, sensors, data processing… Exail is rather a champion in the field of unmanned vehicles,” explains Xavier Tytelman, defense expert and former maritime patrol aviator interviewed by AFP.
Generally speaking, “the demand for this type of solution is growing rapidly, it’s an attractive market,” concludes Kai Balder.
published on October 12 at 8:40 a.m., AFP
