Thales, On 28 February 2006, Thales and Rafael achieved another milestone in the Defender system integration venture. The Defender successfully fired the BARAK missile at Shdema Test Range in the south of Israel. This latest achievement follows previous extensive integration testing and dry runs.
The live firing was against a target drone. The target was detected at a range of 20 km by the Flycatcher Mk2's surveillance radar, and was continuously tracked by its tracking radar. When the drone was at a range of around 7 km from the Defender system, the BARAK missile was launched and guided to the target until the successful interception was achieved at a distance of 6 km. BARAK achieved a direct hit on the target, proving once again the ex-treme precision of the missile and the Flycatcher Mk2 control system.
The Flycatcher Mk2 command and fire control centre is the core of a hybrid, integrated layered air defence concept developed by Thales. The Flycatcher Mk2 system is able to simultaneously control both guns and missile systems. Within the hybrid concept, Flycatcher Mk2 also controls the vertically launched BARAK Surface-to-Air missile that was developed by RAFAEL. The BARAK missile system was originally developed for naval applications and is in service with several navies around the world.
RAFAEL designs, develops, manufactures and supplies a wide range of advanced defence systems. These leading edge products include air-to-air missiles, air defence systems, naval, air and ground precision weapons, electro-optic systems, electronic warfare (EW) systems, Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) systems, acoustic defence systems, armoured protection and training systems.
Thales Nederland B.V. is Thales' centre of excellence for radar and combat management systems. The Thales Group is an international electronics and systems group serving de-fence, aerospace, security and services markets. The Group employs about 60,000 people worldwide and generated revenues of 10.3 billion euros in 2005.
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