Thales receives Gecko contract
Thales has signed a contract with an undisclosed Southeast Asian country to provide its Gecko long distance optronic solution to detect and identify small-size UAVs in civil airspace, it announced on 26 May.
The Gecko solution is expected to be operational by the end of 2016. The company will provide a local control post for each deployable Gecko post, along with a centralised control post. The Gecko will be integrated with thermal cameras and Squire radars.
The client will use the solution for public events to monitor various urban areas, particularly to control UAV usage.
Thales Spain developed the Gecko, which is also available for military vehicles as the Gecko M. The system is based on an optronic solution that uses Thales' Suzie long-range infrared camera. It will be deployable in various places over several weeks.
This marks the first export contract for the Gecko for Thales Spain. The Gecko M is already used on the RG-31 infantry mobility vehicles. The civil version is being used in Spain for border, drug trafficking and other surveillance operations.
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