Staff members of the French Ministry of Defense have started moving into the Ministry’s new headquarters in the Balard district of Paris (photo).

Balard is a strategic site and will benefit from the highest levels of protection and security: security systems, access control, intrusion detection and video surveillance.

More than 2,000 users are now up and running with the secure information and communication systems supplied by Thales.

Located in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, the Ministry's new headquarters will include the offices of the Minister for Defense and his special advisors, the Joint Staff of the French Armed Forces, the Chiefs of Staff of the three Armed Forces, the French defence procurement agency (DGA) and other key military departments and administrative services.

The new headquarters is a complex and sensitive site, making security a major concern at all times. As a defence facility housing a huge number of personnel, the Balard project needed to ensure that security considerations were an integral part of the design, management, operation and maintenance of the site.

Thales is playing a major role in the design and construction of the French Ministry of Defense’s new headquarters and has an operation and maintenance contract spanning a further 27 years.

The design & build portion of the Balard project is a huge undertaking - and the task of protecting the site and its information and communication systems is no less critical.

The key objectives of the project include:

• Delivering the high-grade security required for the Ministry's sensitive and classified data, combined with best-in-class continuity of service
• Ensuring the resilience of networks and communications against the most critical physical and cyber attacks
• Integrating with the Ministry's broader information and communication system policy, including interoperability with legacy and future systems