Thales’ design for the aircraft carriers has been selected and the company is set to play a key role in the £2.7 billion future carrier programme, as part of a tripartite alliance with BAE Systems and the MoD. The company will, in the coming weeks, be negotiating details of how it will under joint management make a major contribution to the programme. The company’s partners in CVF who have provided magnificent support will be consulted about how their contributions can be used.

Alex Dorrian, chief executive officer of Thales Plc, said: “Thales is delighted that its design has been selected in this intensely close-run competition and that we have been identified as the Key Supplier. The project will stretch the resources of industry, the MoD has decided to draw upon Thales’ strength in a three way alliance that will clearly mean substantial work for Thales in the UK. This decision represents a major step forward for Thales Plc and cements the company’s position as the second largest defence contractor in the UK. It enhances the credibility of Thales’ bids for prime contractorships such as the Future Integrated Soldier Technologies and Watchkeeper UAV projects, amongst others.”

“This decision is a huge success for Thales as a prime contractor. By contributing at the highest level to the most important aircraft carrier programme ever developed in Europe, it confirms our global strategy by enhancing our prime contractor capabilities”. said Chairman & CEO Denis Ranque. “We are extremely proud to be chosen as the Key Supplier in this new Alliance and that the Thales’ design has been selected as the basis for this key military asset. Our part in this programme will represent one of the most important contracts ever won in the history of Thales, and in particular the most important in the last ten years.”

Thales is the major systems supplier to the Royal Navy. Along with electronic warfare, communications and radar, Thales’ systems are at the heart of the UK’s naval capability. Thales also provides sonar and periscopes for all submarines. The company is the UK’s second largest defence contractor, having been a supplier to the MoD since before the First World War.

Thales now draws together in one company businesses including the former Racal, Thomson Marconi Sonar, Shorts Missile Systems, Thorn, Avimo and Pilkington Optronics.

Thales is a world leader in professional electronics in three key markets: Aerospace, Defence and Information Technology & Services. The Group employs 65,000 people in nearly 50 countries worldwide, and generated revenues of €10,3 billion in 2001.