First Flight of CN235 ASW Aircraft for Turkey

First Flight of CN235 ASW Aircraft for Turkey

(NSI News Source Info) ANKARA - December 4, 2008: Thales announced today that the Turkish Navy’s future CN235 maritime patrol aircraft made its first flight this week.

Modified by Thales and industrial partners TAI, Havelsan, Aselsan and Milsoft, the aircraft features the AMASCOS system (Airborne MAritime Situation and COntrol System) to provide Turkish naval forces with advanced anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

This new milestone further consolidates Thales’s European leadership in maritime surveillance and patrol systems. Meltem is the most ambitious maritime surveillance and patrol programme conducted in Europe over the last decade.

For Meltem II, Thales is modifying three CN235s for Exclusive Economic Zone surveillance missions by the Turkish coastguard and six CN235s in anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) configuration. For Meltem III, Alenia is integrating Thales’s AMASCOS system on ten ATR-72 ASW platforms.

The ATR-72 ASW aircraft developed jointly by Alenia Aeronautica and Thales is being proposed to naval and air forces around the world, for example in Algeria, Greece, Italy, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

“The mission system is closely integrated with the aircraft’s avionics, making this the most comprehensive solution on the market today, and the most competitive in the anti-surface and ASW turboprop segment. It is backed by Thales’s and Finmeccanica’s global network and with Alenia we are expecting favourable decisions on many of the current procurement programmes,” says Jean-François Henrio, Vice President, Mission Airborne Solutions.

BACKGROUND NOTES:

The Meltem contract, awarded to Thales, is one of Europe’s largest maritime patrol and surveillance programmes. Maritime surveillance aircraft are deployed for monitoring territorial Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) waters, for detecting all forms of illicit trade and trafficking, accidental pollution and oil dumping, and for search-and-rescue operations.

This latest-generation system will provide the customer with an effective maritime patrol and surveillance capability for the coming years. Nine systems will be integrated into existing CN235 aircraft operated by Turkish armed forces (Meltem II) and a further ten into Alenia ATR-72s (Meltem III). Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, addressing defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide.

Thales’s leading-edge technology is supported by 22,000 R&D engineers who offer a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy field-proven mission-critical information systems. Thales employs 68,000 people in 50 countries with 2007 revenues of EUR 12.3 billion.