Paris. 20 June 2024. Thales has signed at Eurosatory three agreements with Ukrainian industry under the aegis of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Ukrainian Ministry of Strategic Industries.
These agreements aim to strengthen operational support of Ukrainian Armed forces front-line operations and reinforce local defence capability.
Domains of cooperation include Electronic Warfare, Tactical Communications, Air Defence Systems and radars, as well as Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
The three agreements were respectively signed on behalf of Thales by Pascale Sourisse, Senior Executive Vice President, International Development, Christophe Salomon, Executive Vice President, Secure Communications and Information Systems and Hervé Dammann, Executive Vice President, Land and Air Systems.
Two agreements concern one of the enterprises of the Joint Stock Company, Ukrainian Defence Industry:
- The first agreement announces Thales’s intent to create a joint venture in Ukraine, which will facilitate the delivery and operations of equipment for the Group’s portfolio of defence systems, including Electronic warfare, as well as Tactical communications equipment, Air Defence systems and radars.
- The second agreement is specific to Electronic Warfare, where Thales will provide extensive maintenance, testing and specialized training. This agreement aims to develop local maintenance capability within Ukraine, which will reduce repair and maintenance cycles and ensure the best operational availability.
In a separate and third agreement, signed with Ukrainian UAV and UGV specialist FRDM, Thales intends to co-develop and manufacture with FRDM an Unmanned Aircraft system able to carry and release munitions.
Pascale Sourisse, Senior Executive Vice President, International Development said, “Thales is a long-standing partner to the Ukrainian forces, collaborating for more than 10 years, first in electronic warfare and then expanding to a broad range of programmes. In the short term, these agreements further solidify Thales’s support of ensuring force readiness for Ukraine. Moving forward, they also demonstrate our commitment, through collaboration with leading Ukrainian players and suppliers, to establish a longer-term foothold in Ukraine and bolster the country’s local defence industry.”