Thales Air Defence Limited (TADL), formerly Shorts Missile Systems (SMS), is a defence contractor based in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, producing short range air defence

missile A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor. Historically, 'missile' referred to any projectile that is thrown, shot or propelled towards a target; this ...

s. Shorts Missile Systems was established as a joint venture between Shorts' owners Bombardier and

Thomson-CSF Thomson-CSF was a French company that specialized in the development and manufacture of electronics with a heavy focus upon the aerospace and defence sectors of the market. Thomson-CSF was formed in 1968 following the merger of Thomson-Hous ...

in 1993. In 2000 Thomson-CSF became the sole owner. In the same year Thomson-CSF was renamed

Thales Group Thales S.A., Trade name, trading as Thales Group (), is a French multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence industry, defence corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aer ...

and in 2001 Shorts Missile Systems was renamed Thales Air Defence Limited. TADL products have been deployed by 56 armed forces around the world. The company employs around 492 people in Northern Ireland. The company also operates a remote facility in rural

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, between Ballynahinch and

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Down Cathedral, Its cathedral is sai ...

, where missiles are tested and stored.

History

Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

' missile division was formed in 1952. In 1993, this became Shorts Missile Systems (SMS) a joint venture between Shorts' owners Bombardier and

. In 2000 Thomson-CSF bought Bombardier's 50% share to become the sole owner. In the same year Thomson-CSF was renamed

; consequently in 2001 Shorts Missile Systems was renamed Thales Air Defence Limited. The then Shorts Missile Systems was a partner in

Raytheon Company Raytheon is a business unit of RTX Corporation and is a major List of United States defense contractors, U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Fou ...

's Future Medium Range Air-Air Missile ( FMRAAM) project, which was to replace the

AIM-120 AMRAAM The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) ( ) is an American Beyond-visual-range missile, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile capable of all-weather day-and-night operations. It uses active transmit-receive radar guidance ...

missile used by European air forces. In May 2000 the UK selected the MBDA Meteor to fulfil the requirement.

Products

NLAW The Saab Bofors Dynamics NLAW ( ), also known as the MBT LAW or RB 57, is a fire-and-forget, lightweight shoulder-fired, and disposable (single-use) line of sight (LOS) missile system, designed for infantry use. The missile uses a soft-laun ...

: The NLAW is a lightweight anti-tank guided missile system that is assembled by Thales. *

Javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon. Today, the javelin is predominantly used for sporting purposes such as the javelin throw. The javelin is nearly always thrown by hand, unlike the sling ...

: Javelin is a man-portable surface-to-air missile and is being replaced by Starstreak. * Starstreak :A High Velocity Missile (HVM) used in the air defence role. Used in many roles with man-portable,

attack helicopter An attack helicopter is an armed helicopter with the primary role of an attack aircraft, with the offensive (military), offensive capability of engaging ground targets such as enemy infantry, military vehicles and fortifications. Due to their ...

and vehicle mounted variants. * Hellfire : Built by Thales under licence from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

for the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

. Hellfire is designed to defeat tanks and other individual targets while minimizing the exposure of the launch vehicle to enemy fire. *

Lightweight Multirole Missile Martlet or the Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM) is a lightweight air-to-surface, air-to-air, surface-to-air, and surface-to-surface missile developed by Thales Air Defence for the United Kingdom. It is named after a mythical bird from Englis ...

(LMM) - :Ordered by the MoD as the FASGW(L) missile on 5 April 2011 to be operated by the Royal Navy's new Lynx Wildcat helicopter. Thales

Historical

* Blowpipe * Starburst

References

{{Authority control 1993 establishments in Northern Ireland Aerospace companies of Northern Ireland Defence companies of the United Kingdom Guided missile manufacturers Manufacturing companies established in 1993 Thales Group divisions and subsidiaries Companies based in Belfast

History

Products

Historical

See also

References