Thales Australia has entered into a collaboration agreement with Expal Systems to establish sovereign capability solutions in Australia for large caliber naval munitions and fuzes.
The new agreement will include the technology transfer of intellectual property to Australia. furthermore, it will support the development of new manufacturing processes that will enable the local production of critical munitions including, 5” charge propelling (CP) and high explosives projectiles, as well as advanced fuze solutions.
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) currently uses 5” naval munitions that are manufactured and supplied separately by both Expal in Spain, and Thales in Australia.
This new agreement between the two companies will not only provide the RAN more ‘on demand’, localized access to Expal-Thales 5” technology, but it will also provide a more stable supply for 5” munitions capability.
Expal and Thales have also agreed to an extensive research and development program, providing a roadmap to the Australian Defence Force for 5” munition technology enhancement on current and future RAN platforms including munitions offering longer range, reduced sensitivity and precision strike capability.
“Over the past 12 months we have established significant partnerships with some of the worlds’ preeminent munitions providers including EXPAL, to nurture technology transfer to Australia and establish local production capability of critical munitions. This is a clear demonstration of the company’s long-term commitment to growing and maintaining an enduring, sustainable and resilient sovereign industrial munitions capability for the Australian Defence Force ,” Corry Roberts , Vice President Land, Thales Australia & New Zealand said.
“We are looking forward to intensifying the cooperation with Thales Australia and provide our Naval Munitions expertise. Our complementary technologies will enhance Royal Australian Navy capabilities and optimize Australian Industrial Capability (AIC) ,” Luis Abad , Vice President Sales, EXPAL stated.
In May this year, Thales Australia entered a teaming agreement with Ocius Technologies to advance the development and deployment of a scalable unmanned surface vehicle (USV) capability equipped for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and surveillance missions.
The company has been working collaboratively with Ocius since 2013 on the role of the USV in ASW.