French FDI Frigate’s Combat System to Get Thales Digital Radar

French Direction générale de l’armement (DGA) has qualified Thales-made Sea Fire digital radar for use on the Navy’s future FDI frigates.

The radar is now handed over to Naval Group for integration into combat system on-board the FDI frigates, Thales announced Thursday.

Over a period of 18 months, the Sea Fire radar underwent a substantial number of land-based tests, mobilising a vast panel of resources and combined teams from the DGA, Thales and Naval Group. All testing took place at the Shore Integration Facility (SIF) on the DGA’s SESDA site in Saint-Mandrier inthe South of France - a major testing reference centre in Europe for the naval sector.

Evaluated and tested against an extensive range of situations including surface targets (light boats, surface vessels…), air targets (helicopters, jets, missiles, drones, etc.) in various environments, the Sea Fire assured its ability to search simultaneously for air and surface targets in a difficult environment, scanning a range of several hundred kilometres with 90° in elevation, Thales claimed.

Thanks to the Sea Fire’s digital technology (for instance digital beamforming), the radar delivers better performance for missions through dynamic radar resource management with short response time.

The digital twin of the Sea Fire reproduces the radars’ behaviour and performance. It supports radar development throughout the product life cycle from initial development to in-service support, operation and upgrades. Assembled in Limours, south of Paris, with the contribution of a network of French small and medium- sized companies, Sea Fire production started in May 2018 and the first FDI shipset was delivered in May 2021 (4 panels).