www.thalesgroup.com.au

INNOVATION, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENTMastering complexity

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In a world that is increasingly interconnected, the systems used by defence and commercial enterprises to deliver outcomes are increasingly complex.

Thales has a proud history delivering these systems, and our commitment to excellence in innovation, research and development (R&D) is the foundation for mastering complexity to enable our customers’ success.

Around the world, 22,500 engineers and scientists work on cutting edge technologies, generating around 300 inventions every year, adding to a portfolio of over 15,000 patents.

We devote over A$4 billion annually to R&D, and have facilities to rival the world’s best research universities.

Technical innovation does not happen in isolation, and Thales has more than 30 cooperation agreements with universities and public research laboratories in Europe, the United States and Australasia.

This wide-ranging commitment and successful track record place Thales at the forefront of R&D in technologies that provide the foundation for delivery of mission critical systems, now and in the future.

MASTERING COMPLEXITY

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DELIvERING AuSTRALIAN CAPAbILITY

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Thales Australia is one of the company’s largest country organisations, with more than 1,000 engineers delivering mission critical solutions in both defence and commercial sectors.

The solutions we deliver are characterised by complexity – many subcomponents interacting to support our customers in performing complex, information rich and mission critical tasks.

We are one of very few companies in Australia with the expertise and infrastructure to develop and deliver complex systems that push the boundaries of technological excellence.

This superior track record is the result of research covering a wide range of areas, from sonar to air traffic control software to protected mobility vehicles – and much more besides.

As technologies converge and mission critical solutions become more complex, Thales is well-placed to offer customers innovative solutions underpinned by our capabilities in systems, as well as the technology base of Thales globally.

Nowhere is this more relevant than in the defence domain, where the Australian Defence Force is transforming itself by implementing the tenets of network centric warfare (NCW). The pervasive application of information and communications

technology is enabling new ways for the ADF to deliver effects.

Thales has the capability to not only deliver the enabling technology, but to also support the ADF in evolving its operational concepts through experimentation facilities such as the Australian Transformation and Innovation Centre (ATIC).

uNPARALLELED GLObAL EXPERTISE

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Designing and developing the mission critical systems that underpin the company’s leadership in the aerospace, space, defence and security markets calls for mastery of increasingly sophisticated technologies – and the ability to integrate these technologies within large-scale software-driven systems.

Thales brings to bear its global reach in a distributed community of scientists and engineers who are in touch with both lead users and research pioneers, wherever they reside. This network, or innovation ecosystem, allows us to blend technology and market perspectives to anticipate the solutions of the future. The network is animated by a principle of knowledge sharing, a core Thales value.

Thales’s research efforts are focused on three core objectives:

The first is to develop new concepts for systems •and products, beginning with knowledge sharing, medium to long term technical and operational analysis, and culminating in technology demonstrators or simulations. The network centric systems that are the driving force behind this research are transforming both the commercial sector and the world of defence NCW.

The second objective of Thales’s research is to •provide the best tools and methods to design, test and develop complex systems, large-scale system-level software and critical embedded applications.

The third key area is system security and •intelligence, including internet security, signal and image processing, data fusion, data mining and micro- and nanoelectronics for microwave and optoelectronics applications.

Thales has an exceptional pool of research talent, and recruits engineers and scientists from the world’s most highly regarded universities and scientific organisations.

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OuR APPROACh TO INNOvATION

With the pace of technological change and globalisation of the world market, customers are finding increasing options to meet their needs, whether through new technology or companies expanding their global reach.

To continue meeting our customers’ needs we are embracing innovation as the core of our operating mindset, not only in technology but across all activities. Thales innovates to reduce costs and optimise operations, to deliver leading edge functionality, and to achieve speed to market.

Thales fosters technical innovation through its investment in R&D and all its associated elements, including partnerships with universities, research organisations and small to medium enterprises (SMEs).

Innovation is also driven by taking a market view. Through its strategy planning processes, Thales analyses how markets and customer needs are evolving, and how solutions can be developed to meet them.

Two significant initiatives foster technical and market-driven innovation. Innovation funds have been established to provide internal seed funding to explore and elaborate innovative ideas that may spring from any level in the company, and often outside normal planning processes.

Second is the ‘innovation intervention’, a market-driven approach that takes key market opportunities, assembles a cross functional team and challenges them to find a solution. Studying cases from other industries is a key component of this approach. The result is a combination of rigorous thinking, creativity and problem-solving with structured processes and teamwork to deliver innovative solutions to a wide range of customers.

A key action that reinforces the culture of innovation is the Innovation Awards program conducted at both a country and global level. These annual awards recognise employees’ creative ideas, projects and initiatives that are in line with the company’s business strategy, goals and values – often involving the development of an innovative technology that helps Thales enter new markets.

Thales Australia’s commitment to research, development and innovation stretches back many years and covers a wide range of technologies.

Achievements across the business include:

Command and control, and mission managementJoint Command Support System (JCSS)•Llama/Cheetah situation awareness solution•Special Operations Command Support System •(SOCSS)Australian Distributed Architecture Combat •System (ADACS) Army Aviation Ground Mission Management •System (GMMS)

Communications and network solutionsArmed reconnaissance helicopter •communications control moduleMaritime Tactical Wide Area Network (MTWAN) •

Large scale systems integrationFFG Upgrade•Rail communications and surveillance systems•

Air traffic controlAir traffic control systems for Australia and •abroadNext generation EUROCAT air traffic •management display Central airspace management unit •

Underwater sensing and mine countermeasuresBarra sonobuoy•Towed arrays •Seismic sensors•Minehunting sonar•Rassputin monostatic sonobuoy•Fibre laser sensor•Australian Minesweeping System (AMAS)•

Force protectionSurveillance, countermeasures and weapons •systems integrationBushmaster Armoured Patrol Vehicle•Bushmaster Copperhead Armoured Combat •Support VehicleSurvivability enhancement kits•

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A PROvEN TRACk RECORD

Thales Australia is committed to staying at the forefront of emerging technologies, managing their integration into complex mission systems and understanding how these advances can transform the way our customers do business.

To this end, Thales in Australia has invested in research capabilities such as the Australian Transformation and Innovation Centre, known as ATIC, and the Network Enabled Warfare Laboratory (NEWLab).

Exploiting advanced simulation, gaming technology and 3D graphics, ATIC allows the creation of virtual representations of solutions. Not only does this provide a means to demonstrate and experiment with new technology concepts, it enables new ways of working to be trialled and evaluated, in partnership with our customers.

This ability to coevolve technology and business processes is at the heart of the transformation our customers are seeking to give them the operational edge.

ATIC provides part of the answer to the question of finding better ways to meet the mission critical systems needs of our customers. But sometimes deeper studies and analyses need to be undertaken, and the performance of actual technologies taken into account.

NEWLab provides an environment where actual equipment is integrated to evaluate the performance of solution concepts, including their architectural foundations. With a strong focus on communications technology, NEWLab takes an additional step beyond ATIC towards solution realisation.

By linking ATIC and NEWLab, Thales has the capability to experiment with our customers and technology partners in rich and realistic scenarios that capture the true performance capabilities of key enabling building blocks.

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INvESTING IN ThE fuTuRE – ATIC & NEWLAb

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To master complexity and assure the performance of mission critical systems demands the right processes supported by the right tools.

Chorus is the Thales reference system that provides a common and efficient way of working across the globe. A common approach enables work to be shared across distributed teams, and then seamlessly brought together into complex solutions.

By embracing best practice, including the requirements of the Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI), Chorus contributes to risk reduction and achievement of cost and schedule performance.

Driving performance and innovation in software and systems engineering is Orchestra, an integrated suite of state-of-the-art engineering tools. The Orchestra Engineering Desk provides a portal to access project engineering data and the tools required to perform assigned tasks.

Data is created once and accessed by teams wherever they reside. It is a key enabler of distributed engineering and making best use of Thales’s global capability.

Orchestra embraces a model-driven approach to engineering, which supports solution verification at each level of elaboration. By supporting workflow

management, Orchestra enhances efficiency and process compliance while freeing development teams to focus on designing, innovating and delivering quality.

ThE RIGhT PROCESSES, ThE RIGhT TOOLS

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The value Thales offers its customers is embodied in the intellectual capital of its employees. With technology evolving at an ever increasing rate, the ability to benefit our customers demands that Thales embraces continuous learning.

In support of this objective Thales has established Thales University, a learning and development centre of excellence. The Sydney campus is part of a global network of seven campuses that offers a wide range of courses boosting technical skills while developing the culture of innovation.

The learning priorities of the company are reflected in the training offerings of Thales University. The current curriculum is focused on improving capability in the following four strategic areas:

Management and change•Project management and business process•Marketing and sales •Systems, software and transverse technologies •(SSTT)

The SSTT area includes courses covering systems engineering, software architecture and technologies, and Orchestra for software and systems. There are also courses relating to human systems integration, as well as model driven engineering.

Sharing knowledge is a key value of Thales, and Thales University is a key tool in realising this value and creating a culture of continuous learning.

CONTINuOuS LEARNING – buILDING INTELLECTuAL CAPITAL

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PARTNERING fOR SuCCESS

Thales enjoys long-term and highly productive

relationships with a variety of agencies, institutions,

educational establishments and technology

providers, including SMEs.

In Australia, we have a longstanding Strategic

Research & Development Alliance with the

Defence Science Technology Organisation (DSTO)

that has seen collaborative research in the areas

of underwater sensing, mine countermeasures

and energetic materials. Through the Capability

Technology Demonstrator program Thales and DSTO

have demonstrated a number of significant concepts

such as the fibre laser sensor, a breakthrough

technology that enables development of undersea

arrays that are much lighter and easier to handle

and deploy than existing systems.

Thales is a foundation member of the Defence

Materials Technology Centre where, in collaboration

with leading Australian universities, public sector

research organisations and our supply chain

partners, new and improved armour solutions will

enhance the capability of Thales’s protected mobility

vehicles.

In 2008 an Information Sharing Agreement was

signed with New Zealand’s Defence Technology

Agency.

These external relationships strengthen ties with

government, academia and other organisations,

enabling the sharing of knowledge and the

development of new technologies in increasingly

complex fields.

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CASE STuDY

Air traffic control The Australian Advanced Air Traffic System (TAAATS)

is the centrepiece of Australia’s air traffic and

airspace management.

TAAATS is based on Thales’s EUROCAT technology,

and comprises a single integrated nationwide system

for the management of aircraft movements over an

area larger than the whole of Europe – 56 million

square kilometres equivalent to 11% of the world’s

surface.

This includes radar controlled airspace, continental

non-radar airspace and oceanic airspace, and covers

every civilian aircraft flight in Australian airspace.

The radar network includes 23 towers extending

down the east coast of Australia and to other major

cities.

In 1994 Airservices Australia, the government

authority responsible for administering Australia’s

sovereign airspace, awarded Thales the contract

to develop TAAATS. Shortly afterwards, Thales’s Air

Systems Division was established in Melbourne to

research, design and develop the required system.

Thales delivered the first operational version of its

new generation EUROCAT system to Airservices

Australia in 1998.

The system, consisting of four million lines of code,

processes and fuses all real-time aircraft position

data transmitted over dedicated communication

networks, and then displays the right data at the

right time to air traffic controllers equipped with

large LCD screens and ground to air communication

devices.

The system features sophisticated tools and aids

to avoid breaches of separation between aircraft

and allow the right human-based decisions to be

made at all times, enabling the highest air travel

safety standards to be met. It provides a fail-safe

architecture designed to guarantee an uninterrupted

air traffic control service 24 hours a day every day.

Following successful delivery and commissioning in

Australia’s two designated main Air Control Centres

(Brisbane and Melbourne) and four Approach

Control Centre/Terminal Control Units in Cairns,

Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, Thales has continuously

improved the system’s functionalities and technology

in response to Airservices Australia’s evolving needs.

Thales has also achieved improvements and

expansion in EUROCAT functionality through a

number of significant export contracts to many

countries around the world including Singapore,

China, Taiwan, South Africa, Mexico, Mauritius, Fiji,

Madagascar, Tahiti and Thailand.

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In Singapore, Thales is providing a next generation

EUROCAT ATM display – the result of significant

investment in operator-focused R&D. The product

represents an important advance in air traffic

controller display design based on Thales’s extensive

experience in advanced automation systems. The

Java based single controller display solution for en

route, approach and tower functions is available as

an upgrade for all EUROCAT systems.

This process of continual development and

refinement has allowed Thales Australia’s EUROCAT

system implementation to stay at the cutting

edge of world best practice and remain the

undisputed reference for all non-European air traffic

management customers.

The success speaks for itself – today, the Thales

EUROCAT Air Traffic Management System manages

approximately 50% of the world’s passenger aircraft

movements.

Australian Distributed Architecture Combat SystemThe Australian Distributed Architecture Combat

System (ADACS) delivers a versatile naval combat

system solution with future growth capacity.

It was developed by Thales Australia for the Royal

Australian Navy’s FFG Upgrade program, and

integrates 14 major shipboard sensors, effectors,

tactical data links and support systems. Some are

legacy and others are newly developed systems,

some with complex proprietary protocols. When

integrated using ADACS, they provide the frigates’

command teams with a common battlespace

management environment.

ADACS also provides command team operators with

a modern graphical human machine interface (HMI)

and automated operational capabilities.

The development of ADACS is one of the most

complex projects in Australian defence history. The

HMI alone involved more than 60 design working

groups and around 500,000 lines of Java code.

Track management processing and interface

processes were developed using C/C++, with

450,000 lines of code.

The project has also involved 220 ‘People Years’

of effort since 1999, including 120 on software

development, 45 on system testing and 55 on

management, supporting functions etc. There were

over 100 formal reviews, audits and working groups

along the way.

The ADACS software executes on modern

commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware based

computing infrastructure. ADACS employs a scalable

client server distributed architecture and COTS

software-based computing environment.

CASE STuDY

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To reduce schedule and development risk, ADACS

was delivered in three baseline builds. Baseline

Build 1 (BB1) delivered significant improvement

to detection and tracking capabilities, HMI

improvements and the provision of the on board

training capability. BB2 was retro-fitted to three

ships and provided a fully integrated vertical launch

system capability for the Evolved Sea Sparrow

Missile. BB3 provided Link-16 capability, integration

of the Beacon Video Processor (BVP) for IFF

processing and integration of the Electro Optical

Tracking System (EOTS).

The success of the project, with ADACS as the

central feature, delivered the first fully integrated

Link-16 naval combat system in Australia and

generated excellent feedback from the Royal

Australian Navy.

The many technical achievements involved

showcased the company’s deep expertise in R&D

and complex systems integration, and delivered to

the ADF an enhanced air warfare capability and

platform life extension.

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Maritime communications modernisationThe Defence Materiel Organisation’s SEA 1442

Phase 3 – Maritime Communications Modernisation

project involves the introduction of an internet

protocol (IP) based maritime tactical wide area

network (MTWAN) into the Royal Australian Navy,

in support of the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF)

NCW concept.

The MTWAN is the first tactical IP network

introduced to the ADF, and will provide the

foundation for future maritime communication

systems integration and implementation.

Thales’s innovative solution involves an integrated IP-

based digital environment, interfacing with the RAN’s

existing analogue system. This approach provides

future-proofing through the use of COTS components

and reduces through life support costs.

The solution comprises a mission system and a

support system. The mission system encompasses

the MTWAN and the message handling system

(MHS). The MTWAN allows for information exchange

between local area networks (LANs) of the same

classification at different locations. The MHS system

upgrade provides new messaging hardware and

software.

At the core of the MTWAN design is a robust and

reliable common router network. This provides

a converged IP wide area network (WAN) for

the interconnection of security domains (enclave

LANs) within the maritime battlespace information

environment. The common router network

provides an IP switching and routing fabric for the

interconnection of LANs at the same classification

level, including ship nodes and those at shore, while

still providing interoperability with allied and coalition

forces.

The MTWAN also provides a two-tiered security

architecture utilising both network and link

encryption. This architecture defends against

threats to both the network infrastructure and the

interconnected LAN applications and data.

The support system builds upon in-service

infrastructure and integrates with the RAN’s existing

capability, and provides support for the operation,

maintenance and ongoing engineering of the mission

system, as well as training.

The development of the solution required over three

years work and a significant financial commitment.

Thales’s NEWLab played an important part in

demonstrating the solution concept, maturity

CASE STuDY

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of enabling technologies and viability of the risk

management strategy.

The MTWAN will be installed on all eight ANZAC

frigates, Australia’s four guided missile frigates

(FFGs), as well as HMAS MANOORA, HMAS

KANIMBLA and HMAS SUCCESS.

The project drew on the experience in delivering

similar programs overseas, and is an example of

the benefits a global company such as Thales can

bring to customers – local expertise combined with

reachback into the global organisation.

Rail communications and surveillanceIn an innovative demonstration of complex integration

expertise, Thales Australia is supplying the

communications and surveillance subsystem (CSS)

and performing information and communications

technology (ICT) system integration for 78 new

train sets comprising 624 carriages for the Sydney

metropolitan train network.

Thales is collaborating closely as a subcontractor to

Downer EDI Rail in designing an ethernet network

and integrating ICT systems including the train

information system, brakes, doors, traction, air

conditioning, fire detection and fleet management

systems.

The fully integrated communications and surveillance

system provides closed circuit television, data

links, GPS, destination indicators, digital voice

announcement, public address, train radio, and crew

and passenger emergency intercom.

Thales is responsible for the design, integration,

testing and support of this critical system, which will

significantly enhance the efficiency of rail services,

security of the network and safety of rail commuters,

increasing consumer confidence and patronage.

Wherever there is complex system integration

required for IT security systems, Thales brings high

level capabilities and proven performance to the

task.

Thales AustraliaLevel 2, Building 51, Garden Island, NSW 2011, AustraliaTel: +61 (0)2 9562 3333Email: communications@thalesgroup.com.au

www.thalesgroup.com.au

Thales Australia Limited ABN 66 008 642 751

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