Thales UK, Thales UK has been awarded a further five-year contract to support the Royal Air Force's (RAF) Intelligence Surveillance Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) Mission Support System (MSS).
This represents the culmination of a year's work by Thales UK and the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) NIMROD Integrated Project Team (IPT), focussing on the definition of the Royal Air Force business requirement and the identification of key areas of service delivery.
The Thales UK ISTAR MSS provides comprehensive support to the RAF's role in Maritime Reconnaissance, Airborne Early Warning (AEW) and ISTAR by delivering a support capability for current and future operations, which is integrated, flexible, networked, secure and mobile.
Development of the ISTAR MSS started in 1980. The original requirement was for a fast time, acoustic replay system for the Nimrod to allow analysis of an eight-hour sortie in one hour before briefing the follow-up crew. The system was delivered to RAF St Mawgan in 1985 and RAF Kinloss in 1986, and has since evolved into the system in use today that incorporates additional ground breaking facilities for automated mission planning, briefing and debriefing.
The ISTAR MSS continues to evolve with feedback from the operational theatre including successful deployments in both Gulf wars. Key to its effectiveness is its ability to provide timely, current data and an integrated capability to empower the warfighter to securely plan, achieve and report military objectives not only at key UK sites but also in deployed operations throughout the world.
Millar Crawford, Managing Director of Thales UK's air systems business said: “Thales UK has been the ISTAR MSS Design Authority for 25 years and the continuation of the partnership between the DLO customer and Thales UK will ensure that the Mission Support System will continue to meet the needs of the ISTAR fleet in terms of capability, flexibility and value for money. I am particularly proud that this year we celebrate 25 years of ISTAR MSS'.
Thales UK's defence activities encompass optronics, air defence, sensors, communications and naval systems. The company is the UK's second largest defence contractor and has been a supplier to the MoD since the First World War. Thales employs 10,000 staff in the UK and 60,000 people in 50 countries. In 2004, Thales UK's revenues were
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