Thales has been selected to provide new satcom on-the-pause ground control stations for the French Army's Serval light multirole armoured vehicles. (Thales)
France's defence procurement agency (Direction générale de l'armement: DGA) has placed an EUR80 million (USD87 million) order with Thales for new ground control stations as part of the Syracuse IV satellite communications (satcom) programme.
The new satcom on-the-pause stations will be integrated onboard the French Army's Serval light multirole armoured vehicles being developed for the SCORPION programme.
In total, 30 dual-band X/Ka satcom stations will be supplied under the Neptune contract for the French Army, the company detailed in a separate announcement.
Thales has also supplied satcom ground control stations to the navy, equipping its surface vessels and submarines as well as fixed and mobile stations for the land and air forces. These include the Mercure on-the-move stations for the French Army's Griffon and Serval vehicles and airborne stations for the French Air and Space Force's wide-body aircraft.
In the French Armed Forces 2023 defence bill (Projet de loi de finances des Armées 2023 – LPM année 5), it was noted that 36 satcom ground stations would be supplied to the army and 19 for the navy under Syracuse IV. In addition, the air and space force would receive 10 “theatre hubs”.
A French Armed Forces spokesperson told Janes at the time that the theatre hubs were “a deployable ground station with a large capacity”.
Syracuse is the French military satcom programme that started in 1980. The Syracuse IV programme, launched in 2015 and valued at EUR3.6 billion, involves the complete renewal of the Syracuse III satellites and ground stations. Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space are prime contractors.
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