Thales and Indra Agree on Joint Development of Tactical Radio to Provide Spanish and French Armed Forces With a State-of-the-art Solution

Thales and Indra, two of the leading companies in the high-tech defence sector in Europe, have agreed to start the joint development of the SYNAPS Multipurpose tactical radio with the aim of providing the Spanish and French Armed Forces with a common and versatile state-of-the-art solution. This development is part of the collaboration agreement, signed in September 2020 between the two companies, to offer a state-of-the-art tactical communications system to the Spanish Armed Forces.

The Indra and Thales alliance contemplates the development of new high-tech products in Spain based on Thales' SYNAPS family of radios and a next-generation SDR system jointly developed with Indra.

This development will be carried out under the umbrella of bilateral cooperation between the French Directorate General for Armaments (DGA) and the Spanish Directorate General for Armaments and Material (DGAM) and will begin in early 2022.

Indra and Thales' extensive knowledge in radio hardware and software, as well as their experience in operations, allow both companies to provide service support to the Spanish Armed Forces throughout the system's life cycle.

The industrial plan associated with this new development includes its commercialization in the export market and is designed to ensure Spain's sovereignty and autonomy, as well as to promote the specialization of national companies in activities with higher added value and their international competitiveness.

Thanks to this new development, the cooperation agreement between both companies is consolidated, strengthening the solutions portfolio and the industrial footprint of Indra and Thales in the defence sector in Spain.

Thales and Indra have already started certification processes with the national security agencies (CCN in Spain and ANSSI in France) to approve the security level of the solution.

Thales SYNAPS products are broadband software-defined tactical radios, capable of integrating battlefield digitization and C4I (Command and Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence) systems that provide information superiority to military commanders while significantly accelerating the pace of operations, enabling real-time horizontal communications between all units involved thanks to best-in-class waveform and European ESSOR interoperability.

The SYNAPS solutions’ portfolio is being deployed in France as part of the CONTACT strategic programme to equip most of the French Armed Forces platforms and proposed to the Spanish Ministry of Defence for the national tactical radio capacity renewal programmes.