After several months of competition, the DGA – the French Defense Procurement Agency – has awarded Thales a contract to renew the Government’s range of network security equipment guaranteeing national sovereignty over the next fifteen years. The contract provides for the roll-out, in 2013, of a first batch of 12,000 encrypters together with in-service support.

This contract is a major step for Thales, selected for all three phases of the project:
- development and mass production of the range of equipment,
- roll-out of the equipment (first batch of 12,000 encrypters in 2013),
- in-service support for all integrated equipment.

A true feat of technology, this equipment will meet the whole gamut of end-user needs in French Army staff and Government offices.

In addition to its high performance (up to 1Gb per second for ultra-fast broadband), this new range will save considerable amounts of space as all of the encrypters, irrespective of use, will be integrated into a single system.

According to Sylvie Ghez, Director of the Information Systems Security domain, Thales Land & Joint systems : “Our great experience and highly specialized expertise in cryptography, Government security, network protocols and communications architecture, as well as our resources in the design and production of telecommunications and security equipment have enabled Thales to win this contract, which follows on perfectly from the equipment already supplied to the Government.”

Thales also leverages its expertise – unique in France – in IP network protection through its strong involvement in international working parties on the subject of network protocol security and is a recognized major player in the field.