Thales, Giat Industries and Sagem consortium to develop BOA demonstrator
Neuilly-sur-Seine, 14 June 2004 -- Following the announcement made by the French defense minister Ms. Michèle Alliot-Marie about the launch of the BOA (Bulle Opérationnelle Aéroterrestre) demonstrator, the major players in the French defense land systems industry have agreed to create a consortium to act as prime contractor for the programme. The Thales-led consortium will include Giat Industries and Sagem, and work in partnership with MBDA and EADS.
The consortium is proposing to the French defense procurement agency (DGA) to become prime contractor for this demonstrator and to coordinate industry partners from European countries who wish to join the ambitious project. One of its objectives is to provide better interoperability between French medium air-land forces and their allies.
The French procurement agency’s advanced study programme for BOA will prepare the future cooperative fighting system concept for French land forces.
BOA introduces new concepts of network-centric warfighting that will be critical to the success of future land forces missions. It ties together all the assets in the air-land theatre, including armoured vehicles, radars, UAVs and infantry soldiers, to increase the operational tempo, improve protection of units on the ground, and allow commanders to be in control in all situations.
The system satisfies a capability requirement for rapid out-of-area deployment of a light force equipped for a broad range of missions, particularly in urban areas.
The technology demonstrator will undergo operational testing in a collaborative engineering and operational procedures laboratory, or Battlelab, by armed forces staff, the French procurement agency and the industry partners.
The consortium and its partners possess all the key competencies required in areas including sensors and information processing, communications, vehicles, UAVs, unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and weapon systems. The consortium will draw on additional expertise from high-tech SMEs and research institutes.
THE CONSORTIUM:
About Thales
Thales is an international electronics and systems group, serving defense, aerospace, services and security markets. The Group employs 62,000 people worldwide and generated revenues of 10.6 billion in 2003.
About Giat Industries
Giat Industries, reference system house for land combat systems, has acquired unrivalled expertise in all the components of modern air-land systems : protection, command, mobility, fires, and support. Giat Industries generated revenues of 729 million euros in 2003 and targets 20 % of sales invested in research and development. Giat Industries equipment and customer's services (MBTs, armoured vehicles, artillery systems, munitions, information terminal systems, product support and upgrades ) are in service in over 100 countries.
For more information, visit http://www.giat-industries.fr.
About Sagem
Groupe Sagem is an internationally based high-technology group. The second largest French group in the field of telecommunications, the third European company in electronics for defense and security, the world leader in fingerprint-based biometrics, major actor in avionics and on-board information systems for aircraft, Sagem maintains a presence in more than 20 countries.
PARTNERS:
About EADS
EADS is the largest aerospace company in Europe and the second largest worldwide. It is active in the fields of civil and military aircraft, space, defense systems and services. In 2003, EADS achieved revenues of 30.133 billion and employs over 100 000 people.
About MBDA
With an annual turnover exceeding € 2 billion, a forward order book of over €14 billion and over 70 customers world wide, MBDA is a world leading, global missile systems company. MBDA currently has 45 missile system and countermeasure programmes in operational service and has proven its ability as prime contractor to head major multi-national projects.
MBDA is jointly owned by BAE SYSTEMS (37.5%), EADS (37.5%) and FINMECCANICA (25%).
www.sagem-ds.com
Sagem
Hervé PHILIPPE
Executive VP, Chief Financial Officer
tél : +33 1 40 70 62 57
Fax : +33 1 53 23 20 47
email : herve.philippe@sagem.com
THALES
Matt Pothecary
Tel. +33 1 57 77 86 26
E-mail: matt.pothecary@thalesgroup.com
Giat Industries
Nelly Tartivel
Tel. +33 1 30 97 36 41
E-mail: n.tartivel@giat-industries.fr
EADS Defence and Communication Systems
Claire Allanche
Tel. +33 1 34 60 77 45
E-mail: claire.allanche@eads-telecom.com
MBDA
Jean-Claude Ranvier
Tel. +33 1 34 88 24 41
Mobile: +33 6 88 23 37 60
E-mail: jean-claude.ranvier@mbda.fr
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