Airbus: chosen by the French naval air force

(CercleFinance.com) - Airbus announced on Tuesday that it had been chosen by the French Army to build the naval air force's new communications network.


The aerospace and defense group reports that the Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA) has awarded the contract to an industrial consortium led by its subsidiary Airbus Defence and Space and including Naval Group.

Worth up to 480 million euros and lasting a maximum of 10 years, the contract covers the development, deployment and maintenance of the naval air force IP network (RIFAN) known as "stage 3".

With RIFAN 3, we are preparing the stage (...) of collaborative naval combat, i.e. networked combat between all the forces involved in a naval operation", explains Eric Even, Director of Space Digital at Airbus Defence and Space.

Developments will be carried out incrementally between 2026 and 2030, and deployed on ships between 2028 and 2032.

More than 80 ships will be equipped with the RIFAN 3 network: aircraft carriers, amphibious helicopter carriers, frigates, command and supply ships, patrol boats, minehunters, submarines and support vessels.

The RIFAN 2 system - put into service in the French Navy by Airbus and its partners between 2012 and 2016 - enables ships to communicate over an IP network guaranteeing a very high level of security, and to exchange data with classification levels ranging from 'unprotected' to 'secret'.

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