Thales Reaches Another Key Milestone In Its Phased Array RBE2 Radar Programme

NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE, France --- Thales, European leader in electronic combat systems, today announced that its Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) RBE2 radar has reached a significant new milestone with the end of its hardware development phase.>> This announcement signals the beginning of the first AESA product delivery phase and the validation of the new software functions, which will further enhance the radars capacities.>> This milestone is the last in a long line of key events that Thales has seen with the development of its state-of-the-art radar AESA flight tests first began in 2003; the radars concepts were validated in 2005; the industrialisation phase was launched in 2006; and this final phase sees the end of the development period and the beginning of production of the hardware model. Final validation of software functions is expected to end in the 1st quarter of 2010 with the delivery of AESA radars to Dassault.>> Earlier this year, the company saw the successful completion of a series of flight tests on the Rafale itself, giving further positive results of the radars performance in an operational configuration.>> Pierre-Yves Chaltiel, Senior Vice President in charge of Thales aerospace solutions for government sector, comments, Thales AESA radar is the furthest advanced radar of its kind in Europe. With several years advance on competitor solutions, Thales technology is unrivalled and we are extremely proud to be launching the production phase of this cutting-edge radar.>> In 2006, the French defence procurement agency agreed to a Roadmap that will deliver Rafale fighter aircraft with a new generation of sensors including the AESA RBE2 radar to the French Air Force and Navy by 2012.