Thales Group Takes a Broad Approach to Industrial Cooperation Development

[ozi2000]

Thales Group Takes a Broad Approach to Industrial Cooperation Development
Mr. Jean Bernard Levy,CEO of Thales Group and Mr. Ali Serdar Baran, Turkey Country Director of Thales Group evaluated future strategy of Thales Group, activities of YALTES, Meltem-II,Göktürk-I and TF-2000 programme for Defence Turkey Magazine.



Defence Turkey: Mr. Levy, first of all thank you for speaking to us. During the last few years the European defence sector has been under increasing pressure. Many international firms have been affected by this situation. What are your views on this subject?
Mr. Levy: It is true that European economies are under pressure, and that Economic convergence measures and budgetary constraints have driven traditional defence industries to seek new markets.
Thales is no exception. Since 2008, our growth has levelled off due to the decrease in defence budgets and the slowdown in traditional economies.
That’s why we have decided to focus our energies on growing economies and on fostering strong local talent development in those countries.


Defence Turkey: What is your vision and the strategy for Thales for the coming years?
Mr. Levy: Our strategy is clear. We aim to capture more business from growing economies, specifically those fast-growing ones beyond the traditional Western European and North American markets. In this respect Turkey is very much one of our key regions.


Defence Turkey: What place does Turkey have in this new vision you plan to reveal?
Mr. Levy: Our aim here is to strengthen local ties with both large industrial groups and SMEs, and continue develop our industrial footprint and local talent pool.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Turkey for the first time in my capacity as Chairman & CEO of Thales. During this visit, I met many Turkish industry officials and had the chance to be given a tour of Turkish Aerospace Industries. I came away from my visit with an extremely positive image of the Turkish high tech sector’s capabilities, enthusiasm and energy. For these and many more reasons, Turkey is a strategic country for us.
Defence Turkey: What can you say about the activities of YALTES in Turkey as an affiliate of Thales Group? Do you have a road map for new investments as well?
Mr. Levy: Yaltes is already a success story. In the frame of several key naval programmes such as IMSS, Genesis and Milgem, Yaltes has very quickly gained the confidence and recognition of the Turkish Armed Forces. In the coming years, we hope to build on this success by boosting local and export markets within naval mission system solutions for mid-size platforms.


Defence Turkey: Mr Baran, in your role as Country Director for Thales in Turkey, you oversee operations here. The group is involved in many important projects. Perhaps we could discuss some of these. For example Turkey gives priority to the TF-2000 Anti-Air Warfare Frigate Programme. What is Thales’s road map for this programme?
Mr. Baran: We are following all developments closely but at the moment, it is too early to go into details about this programme. Our understanding is that the Turkish Navy is still evaluating their requirements.
What I will say is that we have a vast and globally recognised expertise in Sonars, Radars, Fire control and Missile Guidance systems and as the project continues to move ahead, our message to the Turkish Navy and the Turkish Government is as clear as it is simple: We are ready, we are eager and we look forward to the challenge of supporting them to the best of our abilities in all their requirements, as we have done so many times in the past


Defence Turkey: Within the coverage of the Göktürk-1 project, officials from the SSM visited Thales’s facilities in France in January 2014 and conducted various inspections. What was the outcome of the visit? In addition, what is the update on the project’s testing and launch phases?
Mr. Baran: In January 2014, we were honoured by the visit, at our Cannes facility, of Mr. Murad Bayar, SSM Undersecretary, welcomed by the CEO of Thales Alenia Space, Jean-Loïc Galle. The aim reason for the visit was to review the status of the Göktürk-1 satellite and to see the fully integrated Electro-Optical Payload, now that it has almost completed its performance testing phase.
This visit also gave us the chance to demonstrate our capabilities in avionics simulation benches, used for all our satellite programs including Göktürk-1, and to share our views for structured co-operation with Turkish Industry in the Space sector.
If the programme moves forward as planned, an AIT centre final acceptance test will take place in August 2014, when the satellite would go to Ankara for environmental testing. The next executive meeting is planned for April and the targeted launch date is for end 2015.
Defence Turkey: Regarding the Göktürk-3 programme, would you be able to give us some further details on the work carried out by the Turkish side?

Mr. Baran: Thales Alenia Space has been cooperating with TAI since 2007, supporting them on a variety of projects. When Turkey indicated they would request international cooperation for the Göktürk-3, Thales Alenia Space naturally offered their expertise in Single aperture Radar technologies, and their commitment to develop a cooperative effort. Our aim was to work together to develop a product both capable of meeting Turkish domestic needs and to be jointly sold on the export markets.
We also feel we have a unique benefit to bring to the table. The synergies we could develop with the Italian Dual Use Constellation COSMO-SkyMed, would help drive increased SAR data availability and improved time performances for Turkish end users.


Defence Turkey: Concerning the Meltem-II programme, what are some of the deliveries that have been carried out so far and what can we expect in the coming future?
Mr. Baran: As part of the Meltem II Programme, We have been working to transform a fleet of 9 CASA CN235 aircraft into 6 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) for the Turkish Navy and 3 Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (MSA) for the Coast Guards.

The first 4 MPAs were delivered to the Navy at Topel Base in end 2013 with the remaining 2 on track to be delivered over the coming months. The Coast Guard has received all MSA aircraft between December 2012 and April 2013.

We are also providing the Navy with 10 additional Mission Systems which include a set of sensors, workstations and mission software to be installed on other aircraft. 8 of which have already been delivered.

Thanks to the assets developed within Meltem, we have built very strong partnerships with TAI. We believe this will provide a platform towards the export markets and we intend to explore opportunities with TAI in order to win business together globally.


Defence Turkey: Regarding the TF-100 programme and the medium range air defence radar requirement for the Air Force Command, what are some of your capabilities and solutions which might benefit the programme?
Mr. Baran:Thales has a broad product portfolio in this domain and our expertise in the naval market is second to none. Therefore I firmly believe we would be an ideal partner for Turkey.
That said, as we understand it, currently there has been no formal announcement for a TF-100 programme. However one possible solution we envisage, that could satisfy the Turkish Navy requirements, might be a modified MILGEM configuration.
Also, in our answer to last year’s RFI by the SSM for a Medium Range Air Defence radar for the Air Force Command, we proposed our state of the art GM400 compact long range surveillance radar. GM400 is part of our Ground Master radar family which has, in a very short time, become a best seller, with over 60 radars sold in over 10 countries including France, Germany, Canada, Finland and Malaysia. This product might also be well suited to a programme such as this.


Defence Turkey: Cyber attacks aimed at national infrastructure are on the rise globally and are becoming a serious threat. This has sparked significant investments by nation states in order to bolster their defences. Turkey has been developing, a road map to tackle this new threat. What are some of the group’s activities in this area which could benefit Turkey?
Mr. Baran: We consider Cyber Security as being as important as any aspect of a nation’s defence and national security infrastructure. Over the years we have developed a core competency in the Cyber Security domain and now count this as one of the main drivers of our business.
Let me highlight one truly transformative part of our portfolio. The CybAIRVision product suite dedicated to Air Defence systems, first introduced to Turkey last November during the International Cyber Warfare & Security Conference in Ankara.
It is a suite of solutions that enables the detection of cyber intrusions within any Air Surveillance system be it radar or Command & Control. This represents the type of cutting-edge technology which only a group like ours, capable of leveraging expertise from across different domains, is able to bring to the market.


Defence Turkey: Mr. Levy. Would you please provide us with information on collaborations undertaken with Turkish defence industry companies such as Aselsan, Havelsan, TAI, and Roketsan?
Mr. Levy: We have initiated cooperative initiatives with Aselsan, Havelsan and TAI through the Meltem project. This has been extended to areas of Combat Management System, Radars and Avionics. Our strategy is to explore all possibilities to further export market opportunities and develop similar win-win solutions with other Turkish companies.
A clear example of our international collaboration aimed at addressing growing markets such as coastal defence is the Aselsan Missile Launch System (MLS) with our Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM)


Defence Turkey: And on the subject of exports to third countries, what are some of the activities you are planning with Turkish defence companies?
Mr. Levy: Our brand in the naval domain is one of the strongest in the world and when combined with the excellent platforms being delivered by Turkish shipyards, the result is a powerful platform for both the domestic and export markets.
We have already successfully partnered with both Turkish industrial groups and shipyards to provide the Variant, Air-and-Surface Search radar, to an undisclosed country in Caspian Sea. We expect this will lead to more significant orders in the future, especially as Turkish shipyards increase their market share across the Caspian Sea, the Middle East, Far East and Africa.


Defence Turkey: Within the framework of your offset obligations in Turkey, what are the activities that you have carried out with Turkish SMEs and supporting industries?
Mr. Levy: We have a long track record of initiating long term partnerships with Turkish industry to generate offset credits.
Over 15 Turkish companies, from large industrials to SMEs are involved in the implementation of our offsets, performing a wide range of activities from software development to manufacturing. We very much welcome the chance to extend this successful cooperation.


Defence Turkey: finally Mr Levy, what would you like to say to the readers of Defence Turkey?
Mr. Levy: World class education and training is vital to our objectives to foster a strong local talent pool for our operations. I have found science and engineering capabilities at technical colleges, universities and engineering schools in Turkey to be truly exceptional. This ready access to extraordinary local talent, is a driver that will make for a very bright future for us here.

Defence Turkey

 

[Baykuş]

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