Ultra Maritime Sonobuoys Picked By Thales For French Navy

Defence firm Ultra Maritime has been selected by Thales to help upgrade the ASW capabilities of the French Navy.

As per a recent Ultra Maritime press statement, its sonobuoy tech has been selected by Thales Group in support of the French Government’s defence procurement and technology agency, the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA).

Among the new active and passive sonobuoys being acquired by the DGA on behalf of the Marine Nationale will be some of the latest Ultra Maritime technologies.

The firm will be supplying air-deployable U.S.-produced AN/SSQ 62E DICASS and AN/SSQ 53G DIFAR sonobuoys, as well as G-size AN/SSQ 536G Bathythermal buoys produced by its Canadian operation. 

It noted the American models “offer significant performance improvements and are equipped with cutting-edge battery technology which nearly doubles the operational life of the active sonobuoys and augments their acoustic output, while providing precise detection, localization and classification.”

Meanwhile, the Canadian buoys “deliver advanced sonobuoy technology in a more compact form, ideal for rotary wing and Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) operations, where minimizing payload dimensions and mass are important factors.”

The statement observed: “As undersea domain awareness becomes increasingly critical, and submarine and uncrewed threats more and more stealthy, enhancements in sonobuoy performance make the difference between detecting an undersea threat and missing it.”

• You can read more details on the Ultra Maritime website