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2020-12-06

Damen and Thales to Build Frigate of the Future

Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding and Thales recently signed a contract for the delivery and full integration of Thales’s Mission and Combat System for four MKS 180 class frigates contracted by the German Navy. The system will be designed by Damen and completely built by German shipyards, under Damen’s project management.

Valued at €1.5B, the contract highlighted Thales’s leading position in naval global integration. It will be executed by the company’s naval Centres of Excellence in Hengelo, The Netherlands, and Kiel and Wilhelmshaven in Germany, in cooperation with a number of German subcontractors.

Underpinning this contract is the proven cooperation of German and Dutch naval industries, including joint opportunities for Damen and Thales in The Netherlands to innovate within naval shipbuilding projects, often with the participation of the country’s Ministry of Defence. The project underscores Damen’s and Thales’s ambition to build further cooperation with shipyards and partnering industries in high-end European naval programmes.

“Winning such a substantial contract within the strict framework of an objective scoring system reinforces our global leading position in high-end naval integration. Thanks to our innovative capabilities, the German Navy will be able to execute both current and future tasks whilst substantially contributing to stability in the operational theatres all over the world,” said Gerben Edelijn, CEO of Thales Netherlands.

Optimising the Tactical Environment

Thales’s Mission and Combat System includes the comprehensive Tacticos Combat Management System and the AWWS (Above Water Warfare System) Fire Control Cluster. The contract includes four ship systems, logistic services and multiple land-based test and training sites, as well as the option for one or two additional ships.

AWWS is a cutting-edge warfare suite that helps the ship crews to counter and neutralise complex saturation attacks by continuously analysing and optimising the tactical environment and deployment of resources. It will be combined with APAR Bl2 (Active Phased Array Radar), the evolved version of Thales’s proven AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) multifunction radar. In 2019, Thales signed an AWWS development contract for the new M-frigates for the Belgian and Dutch Navies.

In the past years, Thales has been awarded several large contracts by European NATO navies, thanks to innovative solutions and its proven reliability as an industrial partner. These contracts have reportedly made Thales the de facto naval combat system partner of NATO.

The first ship of the MKS 180 class will be operational in 2028. The entire programme will run for over 10 years.

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