Thales and ONERA sign MoU on closer cooperation
15 June 2001
On Friday 9 March 2001, Jean-Pierre Rabault, Chairman and CEO of ONERA, the French Aeronautics and Space Research Centre, and Jean-Robert Martin, CEO of the Thales Group's Defence Business Area, signed a memorandum of understanding to increase the amount of joint research conducted by the two organisations.
Thales (formerly Thomson-CSF) and ONERA have worked together successfully for some time in a number of areas, including:
future airborne reconnaissance, using the full range of imaging technology; extensive test campaigns were carried out in 2000.
modelling of physical phenomena associated with radar applications and wave propagation.
The two partners now wish to strengthen their cooperation to include new subjects that will help to harmonise developments across a whole range of areas, from sensors to systems. They also wish to structure to the relations between their R&D teams more clearly.
Specific agreements on areas for cooperation have been finalised between ONERA and two Thales Business Groups: Thales Air Defence and Thales Airborne Systems. A corporate steering committee is in charge of identifying further subjects of common interest and proposing the most appropriate joint research topics.
ONERA's mission is to coordinate public-sector research to serve industrial applications in the aerospace sector. This agreement provides a permanent framework for transferring upstream research to industry and is part of ONERA's long-term commercial and contractual policy.
Thales is one of Europe's largest professional electronics groups and a world leader in three areas: Aerospace, Defence, and Information Technology & Services. In 2000, Thales generated revenues of 8.6 billion euros, 70% outside France. Following its acquisition of the UK group Racal, Thales now has close to 65,000 employees worldwide, half of them outside France. Thales commits the equivalent of around 25% of revenues to R&D. The agreement will bring the Group continued access to ONERA's research potential in defence technologies.
As France's leading aerospace research establishment and a key programme partner for European agencies and industry, ONERA employs nearly 2,000 staff and has a research budget of 209 million euros.
Press contacts
THALES
Matt Pothecary
Tel: +33 153 77 86 26
Fax: +33 (0) 153 77 87 44
ONERA
Pierre Bregon
Tel: +33 (0) 146 73 40 56
Fax: +33 (0) 146 73 41 59
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