The French Ministry of Defense (MoD) awarded Thales two contracts as part of the DESCARTES program to upgrade ministry data and telecommunications infrastructure networks, the company said Wednesday.
The two contracts include the upgrade of the SOCRATE resilient network and deployment of the POINCARE network to interconnect MoD sites in France and overseas.
For the SOCRATE contract Thales will provide a resilient and scalable high-data-rate network incorporating new technological advances and designed to cope with the growing intensity and number of cyber threats, the company said. The upgraded network will interconnect over 250,000 users at over 100 strategic sites, including the MoD’s new headquarters in Paris, the Hexagone-Balard.
“The project will ensure continuity of the French military’s most important operational missions, from nuclear deterrence to joint forces command and the country’s permanent air security presence,” Thales said in a statement.
SOCRATE encompasses 270 routers, 10,000 km of fiber-optic cable, and over 100 pieces of high-capacity optical equipment. The network is also planned to incorporate Thales’ Nexium View solution, which enables the Ministry’s IT and communications agency (DIRISI) to supervise all aspects of the network in real-time, respond faster to incidents, and anticipate their impact on operations, Thales said.
Thales won the POINCARE contract in partnership with NextiraOne and together are set to securely interconnect 1,200 MoD sites in both mainland France and overseas.
Deliveries for the SOCRATE upgrade are planned to begin in 2017 and end by 2021. The PINCARE network’s rollout is expected to be completed in 2018.
“This upgrade of the French MoD’s telecommunication networks is a perfect illustration of Thales’ expertise in technological innovation and ability to deploy a resilient network with the highest levels of performance and security,” Marc Darmon, executive vice president for secure communication and information systems at Thales, said in a statement.
Thales highlighted the DESCARTES program solutions are designed to meet government, international organization, and critical infrastructure operator demands for secure, resilient high-data-rate networks and interconnections that are fully scalable and supervised in real-time.
NextiraOne is a private digital services company that designs, integrates, deploys, and operates IT solutions for over 20,00 public-sector and enterprise customers. It has nearly 1,400 employees in France with subsidiaries in the Indian Ocean and West Indies-Guyana regions.