Thales is a leading international group, addressing defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide. With expertise spanning the entire value chain, Thales provides customers in its core markets with all the capabilities they require, from equipment and systems to comprehensive support services, including prime contracting on large-scale programmes.
Thales’s leading-edge technology is supported by 22,500 R&D engineers who offer a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy field-proven mission-critical information systems. To this end, the civil and military business develops in parallel and shares a common base of technologies to serve a single objective: the security of people, property and nations.
ATM systems and civil radars
Thanks to its unrivalled expertise in the civil aviation market, Thales is a world leader in ATM systems and civil radars, and has a 70% market share in the navigation aids market.
Thales offers integrated gate-to-gate solutions, from pre-flight to landing, ensuring airport safety, efficient traffic-handling operations, data sharing on aircraft and seamless handover operations between territories.
With over 160 Eurocat centres, 7,000 navaids, 600 radars, 1,000 ADS-B stations and 2000 controller working positions in more than 180 countries, Thales has the largest installed base of solutions and technologies.
ATM research programmes
Thales has been at the forefront of the single European sky ATM research programme (SESAR) since its inception, and is the industrial member with the largest investment level in it.
SESAR is one of the most important research and development projects ever launched by the European commission and Eurocontrol. The programme’s objective is to provide technological solutions in the area of ATM in order to successfully meet the requirements of single European sky legislation. While the single European sky will provide a revised legal framework for more efficient, performance driven, safer and greener procedures in European air traffic, the SESAR programme will deliver technological solutions, functionalities, systems and standards for deployment in Europe.
Thales is shaping the future of European skies, as well as bridging the Atlantic through its key technology partner role in the US NextGen harmonisation programme.
About Thales
Thales 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 revenues in 2009 of €12.9bn.
Thales’s three strategic pillars:
- Span the entire value chain: Thales provides all the capabilities its customers require, from equipment and systems to comprehensive support services such as prime contracting on large-scale programmes
- Optimise synergies between civil and military technologies: Thales actively cross-pollinates civil and military technology to bring all its customers the benefits of both
- Leverage its international dimension and multi-domestic operations: In the defence, security and space markets, national sovereignty is still an extremely important factor. For this reason, Thales has pursued a multi-domestic strategy for more than 15 years and has become a fully-fledged local player in each of its target markets
