Australia looks to Thales for next-generation naval comms
Hobart-class destroyer HMAS Hobart sails in the Eastern Australian Exercise Area. (Photo: Australian Department of Defence)
Thales has supported the Australian Navy with the MTWAN network for the past 12 years.
The Australian DoD has awarded Thales Australia a contract extension for the SEA 1442 Phase 3 programme Internet Protocol (IP) based Maritime Tactical Wide Area Network (MTWAN), which supports the Australian Navy’s communications modernisation and network-centric warfare ambitions.
Thales’s MTWAN sits at the core of the Australian Navy’s maritime communication systems integration and implementation using an IP-based environment to interface its systems.
The company said it had ‘developed and deployed’ several baseline upgrades to MTWAN to support increased bandwidth demands and enhanced cyber security for tactical networks.
Work included the integration of further commercial and military satellite communication systems.
The Thales Australia announcement did not include the value of the extension.
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