Thales to upgrade Estonia’s minehunters
Thales has been selected as the prime contractor to upgrade three Sandown Class minehunters for the Estonian Ministry of Defence (MoD), it announced on 22 February.
As per contract, Thales will be responsible for the revised vessel design, platform and system integration, equipment/system specification and procurement, shipyard management and all test, trial and acceptance events.
Thales will also supply the mission package for the ships. The package, which will be delivered in 2019, will include a fleet mine warfare data centre, new navigation systems, the M-CUBE command and control system and the Sonar 2193 wideband hull mounted sonar.
Estonia procured the surplus vessels from the UK in 2006. Capt Sten Sepper, commander, Estonian Navy, said: ‘The current upgrade programme provides the navy with the opportunity to extend its conventional NMCM capability, based on proven technological solutions and tactics into the next decade.’
Phil Jones, managing director, maritime mission systems, UK, Thales, said: ‘I am very pleased that Thales has been selected by the Estonian MoD for this prestigious and important programme. This is a challenging but exciting project, and these three ships will be upgraded with state of the art minehunting technology that will enable the Estonian Navy to continue to play an important role in NATO mine counter measures group 1 operations.’
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