Thales Hull Mounted and Towed Sonars to Equip four more Italian FREMM Frigates

Released on Thursday, March 27, 2008

Thales has received an order to supply, integrate and install four additional sonar suites under the Franco-Italian FREMM multimission frigate programme.

Three anti-submarine warfare frigates will be equipped with Type 4110 hull-mounted sonars, and Type 4249 active very low-frequency towed arrays for long-range surveillance missions.

A fourth frigate designated for general sea-based operations will be fitted with a Type 4110 hull-mounted sonar.

With the latest order from Italy, the FREMM programme now includes fourteen frigates. France ordered eight and Italy six.

The FREMM ASW configuration provides one of the most capable surface ship ASW systems to be installed on a surface combatant. This has been achieved by leveraging the low frequency active variable depth sonar (LFA-VDS) concept and technologies successfully developed by Thales for the UK Sonar 2087 and integrating it with the sea proven hull mounted sonar from the Franco/Italian Horizon destroyers.

A variant of the FREMM ASW configuration has recently been proposed for the Air Warfare Destroyer programme for the Royal Australian Navy.

Thales is the world leader in the supply of LFA-VDS systems with more than 20 years of continuous development experience: this order further consolidates this position and confirms European NATO navies in the vanguard of modern ASW operations.