Thales to conduct warship reactivation programme for Lithuanian minehunters
28 November 2008
Thales UK's naval business has been awarded the prime contractorship in a new warship reactivation programme following an agreement between the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Lithuanian Government.
The MoD and the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence have signed a sales agreement on board HMS Victory in Portsmouth, UK, for the acquisition and reactivation of two former Royal Navy minehunters.
The Hunt-class vessels - HMS Cottesmore and HMS Dulverton - were converted in 1997 by the Royal Navy from their original use as minehunters into patrol vessels. The vessels were later declared surplus to requirements and put on the MoD list for disposal in 2004.
In 2006 Thales UK approached the MoD and offered to use its international marketing and sales expertise to help find a country that was interested in purchasing the ships for use in their original minehunting role. This approach led to detailed discussions with the Lithuanian Navy to upgrade the vessels with a technologically advanced minehunting system.
The ship-regeneration package represents an innovative departure for Thales UK, building on the naval architecture and engineering expertise already established in the company to support the design work on CVF, the Royal Navy's Future Aircraft Carrier.
The design approach has been agreed with the MoD and Lithuania, and Thales is now actively engaged in the selection procedure for the various subcontracts involved in the programme. This will include fitting the new hull-mounted Sonar 2193 system, propulsion, command and control systems, and mine disposal systems. The ships are expected to enter service with the Lithuanian Navy by 2011.
Ed Lowe, Managing Director of Thales UK's naval business, says: "This is a challenging but exciting project and, as a result of this work, these two ships will be upgraded with state-of-the-art minehunting technology that will enable the Lithuanian Navy to play an important role in future NATO operations."
The work has been led from Thales UK in Bristol, with support from Templecombe on mission systems.
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Notes to editors
Thales UK will be the Prime Contractor on behalf of the UK MoD Disposal Services Authority (DSA), with responsibility for the revised vessel design, equipment/system specification and procurement, platform and system integration, reactivation shipyard management and all test, trial and acceptance events.
As part of the Hunt-class reactivation for Lithuania, Thales UK's Templecombe facility will be fitting its highly successful Sonar 2193 system to a similar configuration as fitted for the Royal Navy Hunt class.
Thales UK's Templecombe facility has more than 400 staff.
About Thales and Thales UK
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 in excess of £8.3 bn.
Thales UK employs 9,000 staff based at more than 50 locations. In 2007 Thales UK's revenues were over £1.2 bn.
Press contact:
Thales UK
Kathryn Bell
Mob: +44 7813 903274
Email: kathryn.bell@thalesgroup.com
Thales UK, Naval
Adrian Rondel
Mob: +44 7971 414052
Email: adrian.rondel@uk.thalesgroup.com
www.thalesgroup.com/uk
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