Thales Underwater Systems
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Thales Underwater Systems or TUS (formerly ''Thomson Sintra ASM'', ''Thomson CSF DASM'' and then Thomson Marconi Sonar) is a subsidiary of the French defense electronics specialist
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 ...
. It was founded in 2001 and belongs to its naval division. It specializes in the development and manufacturing of
sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...
systems for
submarines A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or info ...
, surface
warships A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as ...
and aircraft, as well as communications masts and systems for submarines. Its headquarters are located in Sophia Antipolis,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. Thales Underwater Systems is made up of three branches: ''TUS SAS'' in France with sites in Brest and
Aubagne Aubagne (; according to the classic norm or according to the Mistralian norm) is a Commune in France, commune in the southern French Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône. In 2020, the commune was awarded three flowers by the ...
; ''TUS Ltd.'' in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
with sites in Cheadle Heath and Templecombe; and finally ''TUS Pty'' in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. It nonetheless operates as a single company. The company generated €400 million in revenue in 2006 and employed around 2,100 people.


Background

In 1996, Thomson Marconi Sonar was formed by the merger of the
sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...
systems businesses of French defence electronics specialist
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 ...
and British company GEC-Marconi after the payment of a balance by the latter. It was 50.1% owned by Thomson-CSF and 49.9% by GEC-Marconi. Denis Ranque was appointed CEO of the
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...
. The new company would head 3 operational entities: * The French entity, Thomson Sintra, brought in by Thomson-CSF, was the European leader in defence-related sonar systems and the world's second after Lockheed Martin Loral, with annual sales of 1.5 billion
francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' ( King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...
, split between submarine sonars (35%), anti-submarine warfare systems (27%), airborne sonars (18%) and mine warfare (15%). * The British entity was made up of GEC-Marconi's sonar division, which had annual sales of 90 million pounds (700 million francs) as well as a company already co-owned by it and Thomson-CSF called Ferranti Thomson Sonar Systems (with about 400 million francs in sales). * A third entity in Australia, called TMS Pty, was composed of the two groups' establishments operating in the sector. With the merger of GEC's defence business
Marconi Electronic Systems Marconi Electronic Systems Limited (MES), or GEC-Marconi as it was until 1998, was the defence arm of General Electric Company (GEC). It was split off from GEC and bought by British Aerospace (BAe) on 30 November 1999 to form BAE Systems. GEC ...
and
British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft manufacturer, aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer that was formed in 1977. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. ...
in 1999, the resulting
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 ...
acquired Marconi's 49.9% share in TMS. BAE, through an options agreement, forced Thomson-CSF (now called
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 ...
) to purchase its stake in 2001. The company therefore became entirely owned by Thales and was renamed Thales Underwater Systems.


TUS SAS (France)


Sophia Antipolis

Thales Underwater Systems is headquartered in Sophia Antipolis, southern France. It was also, alongside Brest, one of Thomson Sintra's main sites. This continues to be the case with TUS SAS.


Brest

Brest has been a major center of Thales' naval activities as well as those of its predecessor entities since the 1960s. The site has not stopped evolving since 1963. Opened as part of the Breton electronics plan in order to develop a local industry centered around airborne systems and underwater combat systems to compensate for the difficulties encountered in agriculture, it had since then the mission of producing military electronic equipment, including the first radar exclusively dedicated to maritime patrol, which left the workshops in 1965. Today, Thales' site in Brest is essentially dedicated to research and development. With some 1,000 engineers out of the 1,600 employees as of 2013, the four main areas of activities are mine warfare,
submarine warfare Submarine warfare is one of the four divisions of underwater warfare, the others being anti-submarine warfare, Naval mine, mine warfare and Naval mine, mine countermeasures. Submarine warfare consists primarily of Diesel engine, diesel and nu ...
, electronic warfare, and airborne maritime patrol and
surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...
. These include the development of minecountermeasures sonar, sonar buoys data processing and dipping sonars for submarine detection.


Aubagne


TUS Ltd. (United Kingdom)

TUS Ltd. has two main sites, Cheadle Heath near
Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...
,
Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...
and Templecombe in Somerset. The company had a turnover of around £85 million with a total of 853 staff in 2006.


Cheadle Heath

The Cheadle Heath site was set up in 1977 as an overspill of the
Ferranti Ferranti International PLC or simply Ferranti was a UK-based electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century, from 1885 until its bankruptcy in 1993. At its peak, Ferranti was a significant player in power grid system ...
Military Systems Division based at Wythenshawe. It comprised groups covering training simulators, communication systems and a small Underwater Systems Group which was engaged in the development of displays and computer interfaces for sonars equipment. The main parts of these sonars were developed by the Plessey Marine Research Unit at Templecombe, Somerset. The sonar work at the Cheadle Heath site expanded into digital signal processing, algorithm development, display generation, simulation, LCD and TV displays, mass storage, computer interfaces and highways. Takeovers of other companies brought new expertise in sonar arrays. The Sonar Systems Group increased in size and successfully bid against Plessey for parts of sonar 2054. Other parts of the Ferranti empire started to crumble, aided by the merger with International Signal (James Guerin) in 1987 to form Ferranti International. Ferranti eventually went bankrupt (again) in 1993, however the small, idiosyncratic Sonar Systems Group had become a successful standalone business. A Joint Venture Company was formed between the Ferranti liquidators (49.9%) and Thomson-CSF (50.1%) to form Ferranti Thomson Sonar Systems. The Ferranti share was bought out by GEC-Marconi to become Thomson Marconi Sonar Systems. FTSS had outstations at Weymouth for aquaculture sonar and other special systems. This is now closed along with its Church Crookham site. The site is now a combined focal hypocentre for both the Underwater and Information systems division.


Templecombe

The Templecombe part of TUS started life in 1965 as the Marine Systems Research Unit of the Marine Systems Division of the Plessey Company, then it became Plessey Marine Research Unit, and Plessey Marine, before becoming Plessey Naval Systems, producing sonar and other related systems. The Marine Systems Division was established in 1961 at Uppark Drive Ilford but originated in a specialist underwater unit formed by the Plessey Company in 1948. The sites at Ilford carried out manufacturing and support of the older sonars, such as Type 195, and the Mark 44 torpedo. A manufacturing and support site at Newport, Wales was set up for later sonars and gradually the sites at Ilford closed. The headquarters of Plessey Marine was transferred to Templecombe. Plessey took over a company called Ameeco Hydrospace in the 1970s which specialised in building towed arrays. This had sites in Andover and Gillingham. The sites at Andover were eventually closed and the work transferred to Newport. Plessey Naval Systems was taken over in 1989 by GEC-Marconi, the defence arm of GEC, to eventually merge with Marconi Underwater Systems Ltd. After a joint venture between
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 ...
and
Ferranti Ferranti International PLC or simply Ferranti was a UK-based electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century, from 1885 until its bankruptcy in 1993. At its peak, Ferranti was a significant player in power grid system ...
was created in the early 1990s (Ferranti Thomson Sonar Systems), GEC-Marconi acquired Ferranti's share. The sonar systems businesses of Thomson and GEC-Marconi then merged to become Thomson Marconi Sonar (TMS). In 1999, as part of the merger of
Marconi Electronic Systems Marconi Electronic Systems Limited (MES), or GEC-Marconi as it was until 1998, was the defence arm of General Electric Company (GEC). It was split off from GEC and bought by British Aerospace (BAe) on 30 November 1999 to form BAE Systems. GEC ...
(as GEC-Marconi had become), and
British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft manufacturer, aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer that was formed in 1977. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. ...
, the newly formed
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 ...
held 49.9% of TMS, which it sold to Thales (the new name for Thomson-CSF) in 2001. Thomson Marconi Sonar was renamed Thales Underwater Systems and the original part of Marconi Underwater Systems Ltd became part of BAE Systems. And Templecombe became the main site of TUS Ltd in the UK. The original site at Templecombe was at Wilkinthroop House and later because of expansion a site at Throop Road was added. The Throop Road site was previously the railyard of the Somerset and Dorset Railway. The other railway line from London to Exeter, which the line joined linked to is still operational, and Templecombe station is still used today. Because of restrictions at the former site, all work was later transferred to the latter one and Wilkinthroop House sold off. A flooded quarry at Waterlip was acquired as a test site in the 1960s but problems led to testing being transferred to a site at Vobster. However, further problems there led to testing resuming at Waterlip. The Newport site was closed and manufacturing transferred back to Templecombe. In addition there have been sites in Bath (due to the then-proximity to MoD offices in and around the city, now entirely moved to DESG MoD Abbey Wood) for Prime Contract Management and a Joint Plessey Ferranti Office at Portland to support the Admiralty Research Establishment, but both are now closed. Plessey Naval Systems also had a site at Carlsbad California for USN support.


Church Crookham

One of the sites of Ferranti Thomson Sonar Systems, but a relatively small site within Thales. The Church Crookham site housed a production and test facility for towed array sonars and submarine flank arrays, a design department, and a special projects section. It was involved in Sonar 2076, and for a period provided acoustic calibration services for naval vessels. Now closed.


TUS Pty (Australia)


Meadowbank

This was the main manufacturing facility until 1995 when it was transferred to Rydalmere. The Meadowbank facility has since closed and has been redeveloped into residential apartments.


Rydalmere

This is the headquarters of TUS in Australia.


Products

*Dipping sonar (such as that for the Merlin helicopter) *Minehunting Sonars (such as Type 2093, Type 2193, TSM 2022 Mk3) *Sonar Type 2016 (surface; originally Type 22 Frigates) *Sonar Type 2020 (Trafalgar and Swiftsure class of Hunter/Killer Submarines) *Mine and obstacle avoidance sonar for surface ships (TSM 5424 Petrel sonar) *Sonars for conventional submarines (S Cube SSK) *Surface ship towed array sonar ( Sonar 2087, CAPTAS) *Medium frequency ASW sonar (Spherion) *Torpedo sonars *Torpedo detection sonar (Sea Defender) *Submarine sonar (Type 2076) *Underwater communications sonars *Sonobuoys/processors *Swimmer detection sonar *Synthetic aperture sonar (DUBM-44) *Unmanned underwater vehicle sonar *Autonomous/towed training sources *Submarine communication masts *Submarine-launched buoys *Vehicle mount antennas * SATCOM Antennas


Sites

* Brest, France *
Sophia-Antipolis Sophia Antipolis is a 2,400 hectare science park, technology park in southeast France, and as of 2021 home to 2,500 companies, valued today at more than 5.6 billion euros and employing more than 38,000 people counting more than 80 nationalities. ...
, France * Templecombe,
Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
, UK * Cheadle Heath,
Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...
, UK * Meadowbank,
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
, Australia * Rydalmere,
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
, Australia.


References

{{Reflist Companies based in Stockport Defence companies of the United Kingdom Sonar manufacturers Thales Group divisions and subsidiaries