Thales & Panhard announced their agreement of partnership for the future sale of Bushmasters in France
Eurosatory, France, 16/04/08
Thales Australia and Panhard are pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding concerning the Bushmaster Family of Vehicles (FOV) in France. With over 470 units delivered to date, Bushmaster is a combat proven highly protected and mobile utility vehicle. Deployed with Australian forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Dutch forces in Afghanistan, Bushmaster has successfully demonstrated its capabilities, offering greatly enhanced protection, mobility, mission flexibility, reliability and operational sustainability.
Panhard a French manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles has supplied more then 18,000 military wheeled vehicles to 50 countries around the world. The agreement utilises Panhard’s long term expertise in the armoured wheeled market in France, and its specific market knowledge of the French customer. The introduction of the Bushmaster FOV expands Panhard’s product range and introduces Panhard to the wide range of integrated systems Thales has to offer.
Thales Australia has been designing and manufacturing the Bushmaster FOV in its Australian facility for the last 11 years. The Bushmaster, V-shaped monocoque structure, is able to provide protection from a diverse range of threats including mine blast, ballistic, IED and road side bomb attacks. Additionally this construction of the vehicle allows it to take up armouring as the mission may require.
Christian Mons, CEO of Panhard said: “We are delighted to work with Thales Australia. The fact that Bushmaster is now operational proven and in-service with major armies recognises that vehicle true attributes and capabilities. There are a lot of synergies between the design elements of the Bushmaster and our VBL Light Armoured Vehicle with their modular design a wide range of variants can be established depending on the customer needs”.
Chris Jenkins, managing director of Thales Australia, said: “This agreement represents a significant step forward in future export sales for the Bushmaster FOV. Working with Panhard we will be able to gain a greater understanding of the customer requirements and be able to further improve the Bushmaster FOV capabilities. Additionally we are able to potentially provide a full range of mission equipment fully integrated in the to vehicle platform depending of the specific customer requirements We are looking forward to future opportunities and further enhancing the relationship with Panhard”.
ENDS
About Thales
Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, addressing defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide. Thales’s leading-edge technology is supported by 22,000 R&D engineers who offer a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy field-proven mission-critical information systems. To this end, the group’s civil and military businesses develop in parallel and share a common base of technologies to serve a single objective: the security of people, property and nations. The group builds its growth on its unique multi-domestic strategy based on trusted partnerships with national customers and market players, while leveraging its global expertise to support local technology and industrial development. Thales employs 68,000 people in 50 countries with 2007 revenues of €12.3 billion.
Thales Australia is the leading defence systems and engineering company in Australia and is also present in civil sectors ranging from air traffic management to security systems and services. Employing 3,700 people in over 35 sites around the country, Thales Australia recorded revenues in 2007 amounting to over AUD1 billion.
About de Panhard General Defense
Panhard, a 100% owned subsidiary of Auverland since the beginning of 2005, has designed and built armoured vehicles for almost a century. Panhard produces the light armoured vehicle (VBL), more than 2,000 of which have been built, 1,600 of them for the French Army. In 2007, Panhard achieved a turnover of 78 million euros and has an order book of over 280 million euros.
ENDS
Press contacts
Thales Australia
Libby Noble
+61 2 9562 3150
+61 (0)434 155 881
Libby.Noble@thalesgroup.com.au
Thales Land & Joint
Aude Colas des Francs
Tel: +33 1 46 13 20 86
aude.colasdesfrancs@fr.thalesgroup.com
Panhard
Charles Maisonneuve
Tel : 33 (0) 1 60 82 49 87 / 33 (0) 6 13 22 30 21
charles.maisonneuve@panhard.fr
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