BAE Systems and Thales have been contracted by the U.S. Army to provide combat identification solutions for ground combat and combat support vehicles to minimize the risk of fratricide, commonly referred to as “friendly fire.”
Under a $3.3 million contract from the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Life Cycle Management Center, the companies will study how millimeter-wave combat identification systems can address issues related to affordability, information security, and platform integration. The contract was awarded as part of the Joint Cooperative Target Identification-Ground program, an effort to develop a low-cost target identification capability for the Army and Marine Corps.
“BAE Systems and Thales are working together to develop a systems approach that combines Thales’s expertise in combat identification equipment and BAE Systems’ expertise in platform integration and network-centric combat identification capabilities,” said Paul Markwardt, vice president of identification and surveillance for BAE Systems in Greenlawn, New York. BAE Systems is the lead in the partnership with Thales that began in 2006.
“Thales is proud to support this effort with its combat ID technology and integration experience, proven on a range of platforms and coalition exercises,” said Merry Michaux, director of Thales’s Communication Navigation Identification business.
The contract covers the program’s risk-reduction phase, focusing on ground-to-ground combat identification between platforms. The program specifies a NATO-standard all-weather, millimeter-wave interrogate-and-respond system for use on U.S. fighting vehicles to signal the presence of friendly vehicles. The system must be day-and-night capable and not affected by camouflage or battlefield obscurants.
About BAE Systems
BAE Systems is the premier global defense and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. With approximately 100,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems' sales exceeded £15.7 billion (US $31.4 billion) in 2007.
About Thales
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 of €12.3 billion.
Contacts:
BAE Systems
Karen Spiller, +1 603 885 2818
Mobile: +1 603 566
2090
karen.spiller@baesystems.com
or
Shannon
Smith, +1 703 907 8257
Mobile: +1 703 967 3854
shannon.n.smith@baesystems.com
www.baesystems.com
or
Thales
Katie
Fitzgerald, +1 703 838 5678
Mobile: +1 571 243 6593
katie.fitzgerald@us.thalesgroup.com
www.thalesgroup.com
