Thales to integrate secure SATCOM system onto French military tanker aircraft

Thales's SATCOM stations are to be integrated into fuselage of French Airbus A330 Phénix Multi Role Tanker Transport aircraft (pictured). (Thales Group)

The Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA) has awarded Thales and its partners a contract for the development, integration, and support of aircraft satellite communications (SATCOM), Thales announced on 8 February.

The contract dubbed ‘Mélissa' will involve the delivery of resilient high-speed satellite stations for French Armed Forces Airbus A330 Phénix Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) aircraft by 2025, according to the company. Thales will also provide support services over a 17-year period, the DGA announced.

The contract forms part of France's Syracuse IV military satellite telecommunication programme, which is intended to equip the French Armed Forces with highly secure uninterrupted communications.

The stations – integrated into the fuselage of the aircraft – will operate with the Syracuse satellite system and will be compatible with any allied military or commercial satellite, the DGA said.

“[The] Thales terminal is derived from a proven SATCOM product that has accumulated over 30,000 flight hours on commercial airliners. The militarised version is specifically designed to maintain connectivity with command centres in jammed environments and severely degraded flight and weather conditions,” Thales detailed. The militarised version is designed to maintain connection in military and civilian Ka-bands, the DGA added.

“The high availability of these stations, their compact design, and flexibility of integration make them high-performance tools capable of connecting large military or government aircraft such as the MRTT, A400M, and AWACS,” Thales said.

Airbus will integrate the stations onto the A330 MRTT aircraft.

Eclipse, a French-based SME, and two Thales industrial competence centres, Gennevilliers and Cholet, will also be involved in the delivery of the stations.