Thales and Sanmina to partner on advanced radar systems

This non-exclusive strategic cooperation between Thales and Sanmina targets areas of joint development, engineering and production of components and sub-systems for Thales’ radar equipment. This equipment will be for export worldwide, and in particular will support candidate radar systems from Thales to the National Ship Procurement Strategy (NSPS) Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) Project. It is also expected that this Thales – Sanmina cooperation will extend to future technologies for radar components and sub-systems. Thales and Sanmina fully appreciate and support the need for a strong Canadian based value proposition for the CSC program and other Canadian defence projects. This MOU is the framework to implement and deliver on these commitments in Canada. Sanmina designs and manufactures advanced RF and optical components and subsystems for the aerospace, communications, medical, industrial and other markets, including technologies and product solutions for leading edge radar applications. Geert van der Molen, Vice President Surface Radar at Thales, had this to say, “This MOU is a logical next step towards implementing a stronger strategic cooperation with Sanmina. Our relationship with Sanmina originated during the development of APAR, the first ever active phased array radar and a very successful system, with important Canadian content. This MOU will extend our relationship beyond APAR to include Thales’ latest radar developments. We are very excited about the opportunities that lay ahead of us and are convinced that a combined Thales - Sanmina team can and will deliver significant benefit to both Canadian and global customers for these radar systems.” “We are very pleased to expand our long standing relationship with Thales for development and production of their latest radar solutions, and especially in support of the CSC program”, said John Pokinko, Vice President of Engineering for the Optical and Microelectronic Division at Sanmina. “This MOU provides a solid framework to expand our RF/Microwave and Optical engineering and manufacturing expertise, focusing on next generation radar systems, with ‘Made in Canada’ technologies. Sanmina is further investing in a new, state of the art facility in Ottawa, to support high technology design and manufacturing requirements for our customers.”