Thales’ Key Role in Russia’s Defense Industry

Over at Moscow Defence Review, Sergey Denisentsev’s “Thales Group in Russia” notes that:

“Few Western companies can boast of the same experience of broad and productive cooperation with Russian aerospace and defense enterprises as the Thales Group of France.”

Denisentsev outlines the scope of this cooperation, which encompasses the Ka-52 attack helicopter, MiG-AT trainer, Sukhoi’s SU-30 fighters, T-90 tanks, civil/military satellite platforms, the Superjet 100 regional jet, and possibly the MC-21 short-medium range airliner.

He adds the Russian Ministry of Defense, and Thales are now negotiating technology transfer agreements and full localization of Damocles surveillance and targeting pod production in Russia. The Damocles pod is comparable to offerings like Lockheed Martin’s Sniper ATP and Northrop Grumman/ RAFAEL’s LITENING; it is set to enter service with France’s high-end Rafale fighters soon, and has been ordered by Malaysia for its advanced Sukhoi SU-30-MKMs. Under these proposed arrangements, Damocles would also equip Russia’s modernized Su-27SM Flanker fighters, Su-24M2 Fencer swing-wing strike aircraft, and their Sukhoi-built successors the Su-35-1 Flanker and the Su-34 Fullback.