Addressing what is described as years of neglect of military support, French President Emmanuel Macron is exerting pressure to pump up defense production. The ongoing war in Ukraine is said to be among the motivators for Macron’s initiative. In an article published by Politico, Macron identifies Thales-built Ground Master air surveillance radar systems as pivotal to future strategic military hardware vital to the defense of Ukraine, and by extension, for other Thales customers. Thales is jointly controlled by the French state and fighter jet maker Dassault Aviation and is the world’s third-largest radar producer after Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
Yves Descourvieres, Thales’s head of product management for surveillance multi-mission radars, said, “For the assembly lines to cope with the increase of demand, we’re doubling the teams and are in the process of working on two shifts instead of one to make sure we have more production in Limours.”
Ground Master customers include Indonesia (13 GM 400 Alpha radars), Morocco, the Netherlands, Armenia, and Moldova, which bought one of the truck-mounted, mobile radar systems and is scheduled to receive a second, paid for by the EU European Peace Facility. According to the Politico article, the Thales air surveillance radars represent an important element in France’s effort to expand ties with countries threatened by Russian aggression.
