Thales to maintain Royal Navy ships and submarines communications

• Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) has awarded Thales in the UK a major contract to maintain the Royal Navy’s internal and external fleet communications and provide global 24/7 support operations for the next 10 years.
• This investment is one of the largest in naval communications across Europe.
• The announcement for Maritime Communications Capability Support (MCCS) secures around 100 high skilled UK jobs sustained.

The Royal Navy’s fleet communications systems are being maintained to support combat capability after one of the largest investment in naval communications across Europe. The announcement for Maritime Communications Capability Support (MCCS) secures around 100 high skilled jobs at Thales and the new arrangements are estimated to save the Royal Navy up to £30m in through life costs over the next decade.

Communications systems on Royal Navy Units are a critical component of a platform’s ability to operate and fight; any failure or degradation of these systems places significant risk on the Royal Navy’s ability to fulfil Defence Outcomes. To meet and sustain global Royal Navy operational commitments requires resilient and enduring support contracts to maintain mission critical equipment at the highest levels of operational capability and availability.

The MCCS arrangement replaces the previous Fleetwide Communications contract which Thales in the UK has overseen for the past seven years.

Thales in the UK will also provide “waterfront” office services, obsolescence recovery for aging equipment and inventory management, ensuring spare part availability and ongoing defect repairs as required.

A key element to the contract is the slashing of red tape through closer collaboration between DE&S, the Royal Navy, and Thales in the UK, effectively delivering a “one defence” team which massively reduces bureaucracy while boosting efficiency. Thales in the UK is awarded the freedoms and autonomy to make informed decisions on equipment replacement to sustain capability long-term to the benefit of the Royal Navy.

Commodore Phil Game, Director of Sense, Decide & Communicate at DE&S, said: “First and foremost, this announcement ensures the Royal Navy continues to have effective and secure communications equipment with continuous support from Thales, which has Europe’s largest team of marine communications engineers, supporting its vital work keeping the UK and our allies safe. Crucially, we have looked at outcomes from other successful defence programmes and applied the lessons learned from those, in particular cutting unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy allowing Thales much more freedom to get the job done. We estimate that the scope of this contract will save between £25m and £30m in through life costs to the Royal Navy over the 10-year support period by working in a much more collaborative way with Thales in the UK, underlining our ‘one defence’ philosophy.”

Phil Siveter, CEO Thales in the UK, said: “At Thales we are delighted to continue supporting the Royal Navy in its vital mission to protect our nation. This long-term fleetwide support framework reflects our unwavering commitment to ensuring the Royal Navy remains combat-ready and equipped with world-class communications capabilities, today and into the future. Building on seven years of trusted partnership, we are proud to provide the technical excellence and on-the-ground support that keeps ships, submarines and installations operational and mission-ready. By working as ‘one team’ across the Naval Enterprise, we are driving innovation and systems integration to place the Royal Navy at the cutting edge of defence technology for the next decade.”

About Thales

Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global leader in advanced technologies specialized in three business domains: Defence & Security, Aerospace, and Cyber & Digital.

It develops products and solutions that help make the world safer, greener and more inclusive.

The Group invests close to €4 billion a year in Research & Development, particularly in key innovation areas such as AI, cybersecurity, quantum technologies, cloud technologies and 6G.

Thales has close to 81,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2023, the Group generated sales of €18.4 billion.