Thales producing new compact antenna for Vigile D ESM

Thales UK has commenced series production of a new compact antenna assembly for the latest instantiation of its Vigile D wideband digital radar electronic support measures (ESM) system.

Vigile D – known internally as version 2 by Thales – has been ordered by the Netherlands Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) for the navies of the Netherlands (for installation on HrMs Rotterdam , HrMs Johan de Witt and HrMs Karel Doorman ) and Portugal (for retrofit to the M-frigates NRP Bartolomeu Dias and NRP Dom Francisco de Almeida ). The first deliveries of the Vigile D version 2 ESM system, featuring the new compact antenna, are planned for late 2020.

Vigile D is a shipborne ESM system exploiting patented software-defined digital receiver technology to achieve a claimed 100% probability of intercept, even in congested radio frequency (RF) environments with multiple overlapping signals. This means that signals of interest, such as threat emitters, are not masked by other high-power signals.

Work to reduce the Vigile D antenna form factor has been self-funded by Thales UK as a product improvement initiative. “We recognised a need to make the antenna housing much more efficient in terms of size, weight and power,” Phil Ventress, the company’s head of EW strategy and product policy, told Janes . “That is critical to shipyard integrators because the antenna has to fit on top of the mast.