Defence Equipment and Support, the procurement and support organization of the UK Ministry of Defence, signed a contract with BAE Systems and Thales Nederland for the maintenance and support of the seven S1850M volume search radars that were sold to the Royal Navy.

Six of these systems are, or will become, operational on the Type 45 class of vessels, while the seventh one serves as a land-based reference model.

The contract has a duration of 18 months and includes an option for a further one year.

Through this contract BAE and Thales will be responsible for technical help desk support, initial spares provisioning, repairs, and design authority support.

A yearly system check and more complex tasks such as monitoring and configuration management are included in the contract as well.

Gerben Edelijn, CEO of Thales Nederland, says that "Thales is very proud of this contract as it illustrates the confidence the Royal Navy has in the service capabilities for our volume search radars of which the S1850M is an important member."

Thales expects to sign more maintenance contracts for the S1850M systems on board of the French and Italian Horizon class vessels next year.

S1850M

The S1850M radar, based on the Thales' SMART-L Volume Search Radar, was selected for the tri-partite PAAMS Programme for the UK's Type 45 class and the French and Italian Horizon class. The S1850M system is a derivative of the Thales SMART-L radar, which features, among others, an increased update rate.

This system is capable of automatic detection, track initiation and tracking of a large number of air targets and up to a range of 400 km. Its performance has been exhaustively tested and the system has proven to be capable of detecting stealth targets in cluttered environments.

Furthermore, this radar can be upgraded to detect and track outer atmosphere objects for future Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence (TBMD) capabilities. With 26 systems sold and operational, or under contract, in the leading European navies, SMART-L and S1850M are the de facto NATO standard naval long range radar systems.

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