Thales tapped to upgrade Australia's Collin-class submarine sonar systems
NewsJune 19, 2018
LA DEFENSE, France. Australian government officials selected Thales to perform sonar system upgrades on all six Collins submarines. The contract with Thales is valued at $230 million, but is part of a $542 million Australian government-approved project to upgrade the Collins-class sensor capabilities.
Manufacturing and integration work will be carried out at Thales’s underwater systems center of excellence in Rydalmere, Western Sydney, supporting more than 140 jobs, including 50 people directly employed on the project.
In an internationally collaborative program, the Collins’ legacy cylindrical array will be replaced with a Modular Cylindrical Array (MCA) based on Sonar 2076 submarine technology developed by Thales teams in the UK. The existing flank array will be replaced by the latest generation flank array from Thales teams in France.
Thales will work with local industry including Raytheon Australia as the Combat System Integrator to deliver the upgrades for the six submarines integrating products from other Australian providers including Sonartech Atlas and L3 Oceania.
