Forges de Zeebrugge (since 1 January 2017: Thales Belgium) is an arms manufacturer in based in

Herstal Herstal (; ), formerly known as Heristal, or Héristal (), is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city of Wallonia located in the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. It lies along the Meuse river. Herst ...

, Belgium. Forges de Zeebrugge was founded as a munitions factory between

Zeebrugge Zeebrugge (; from , meaning "Bruges-on-Sea"; , ) is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeebrugge and a seafront resort with ...

and Zwankendamme, in the 1930s, as a subsidiary of Carcoke. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the site was taken over by German forces. Allied bombing, especially in July 1943, devastated the factory site; the original munitions factory was never rebuilt and later remediation of this site was difficult due to unexploded munitions. The surviving FZ business changed focus to rocketry. In 1971, FZ bought the Fort d'Évegnée from Belgian Army, using it to store explosives. Modern-day FZ is a subsidiary of

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; ; ) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic Philosophy, philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. Thales was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Seven Sages, founding figure ...

, and is a leading manufacturer of aircraft air-to-ground rocket system (70mm, 2.75") including rocket launcher (7, 12 and 19 tube), rockets and firing control system. FZ rocket systems are qualified and in operational use on more than 300 platforms including

Airbus Helicopters Airbus Helicopters SAS (formerly Eurocopter S.A., trading as Eurocopter Group) is the helicopter manufacturing division of Airbus. It is the largest in the industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopter deliveries, holding 48% of the wo ...

AgustaWestland AgustaWestland was an Anglo-Italian helicopter design and manufacturing company, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Finmeccanica (now known as Leonardo). It was formed in July 2000 as an Anglo-Italian multinational company, when Finmeccani ...

Hindustan Aeronautics Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian Public sector undertakings in India, public sector aerospace and defence (military), defence company, headquartered in Bengaluru. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and lar ...

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...

Embraer Embraer S.A. () is a Brazilian multinational aerospace corporation. It develops and manufactures aircraft and aviation systems, and provides leasing, equipment, and technical support services. Embraer is the third largest producer of civil air ...

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

Hawker Beechcraft Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) was an American aerospace manufacturing company that built the Beechcraft and Hawker business jet lines of aircraft between 2006 and 2013. The company headquarters was in Wichita, Kansas, United States, with ...

and other aircraft manufacturers. In 2011, FZ workers briefly went on strike, in response to a Belgian government reform of arms exports - which was triggered by FN exporting arms to Libya. In October 2015, FZ has successfully completed a test firing of its 70 mm

laser-guided Laser guidance directs a robotics system to a target position by means of a laser beam. The laser guidance of a robot is accomplished by projecting a laser light, image processing and communication to improve the accuracy of guidance. The key ide ...

rocket (FZ275 LGR) from a Denel Rooivalk helicopter. In December 2017, an

H145M helicopter successfully launched a 70mm Laser Guided Rockets (FZ275 LGR) during its firing campaign at the Älvdalen test range of the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration Flight test Centre.

References

{{reflist Firearm manufacturers of Belgium Defence companies of Belgium Air-to-ground rockets Herstal Soumagne Companies based in Liège Province

See also

References