Thales Aboard the Korean Navy Type 214 Submarines

(July 21, 2010) -- Thales and Samsung Thales have been selected by the German submarine shipbuilder HDW as the providers of the X-band Satcom Terminal for the six Type 214 submarines to be delivered to the Republic of Korea's Navy as part of the KSS II Batch 2 programme.

Thales will export its most advanced SATCOM technology for submarines application to its partner, Samsung Thales, providing the key elements of the outboard unit to be installed on the top of the Type 214 SATCOM communication mast.

Thales's solutions provide the best answer to both end-customer requirements and shipbuilder installation constraints by proposing a flexible system that is adapted to all kind of submarine.

The Satcom terminal delivers high tracking performances even in extreme environment. It also guarantees high-level integrated communications, offering the latest innovations in terms of data rate requirements for voice and data transmission.

"Thales is proud to have been selected to deliver this state of the art military Satcom solution for the Korean Navy", says Jean-Michel Lagarde, Director of Network and Infrastructure Systems activities at Thales. "By answering the particular needs of its clients, Thales has shown its expertise as a global Satcom solution provider for navies worldwide."

The delivered system is issued from Thales's DIVESAT technology and belongs to the second generation of submarine Satcom Terminals manufactured by Thales. It is available in two versions, one fitted with a 40 cm antenna and one fitted with a 75 cm antenna, both addressing the market of new submarines as well as the retrofit market. The two of them are capable of operation at different frequency bands (X, Ku, Ka or EHF) and can deliver to navies unprecedented data throughput capabilities, worldwide. The DIVESAT solution follows the former generation introduced in the late 1980s, which has demonstrated decades of trouble-free operation.

Source : Thales Group (Paris: HO.PA) - click here for more information