Most of its 1,800 employees, mostly engineers, have “secret-defense” clearance, and the company rarely opens its doors to visitors. For several years, the Thales site in Cholet has discreetly pursued its impressive development to always be at the forefront of military telecommunications. It is here, in its premises of 13 hectares in Maine-et-Loire, that come for example to equip all the armored vehicles (and in particular the Griffon or the Jaguar) of the French army, at the request of the Directorate General of Armaments. But the teams also work with marine, land or space forces from around fifty countries with which France has signed agreements.
“We are here on a site of excellence for all that is secure radiocommunication, from product design to deployment, including production and training, explains Jean-Pascal Laporte, the site director, during a press visit. very framed. We are also working as close as possible to our forces: during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, there were, for example, people from Thales Cholet present to support NATO. The site, in full swing, sees above all the arrival of hundreds of new employees every year: +45% in five years, and broken records with 300 recruitments this year, and even more next year. Growth dictated by increasingly significant cybersecurity and data protection issues, particularly when it comes to the transmission of images, voice messages or signals that are sometimes decisive in armed conflicts. “In 2016, around 160 people were dedicated to this in Cholet, specifies the director. Today, there are more than 400. We embed these elements in all our solutions. »
Components “smaller than dust”
What mobilizes Thales employees in Cholet is also electronic warfare. “Anything that makes it possible to identify, locate, listen to or jam enemy telecommunications: walkie-talkies, satellite links, wi-fi, etc.,” explains Nicolas Fovet, head of the naval and airborne electronic warfare projects department. A whole arsenal of devices and stations have been designed for this purpose, in this center which is now mainly devoted to research and development.
The Eclipse self-protection jammer, for example, is the pride of the teams. “It is capable of detecting the remote control pulse of an explosive device and will scramble its signal, continues Nicolas Fovet. It prevents the device from exploding and thus protects convoys of vehicles, and therefore contributes to saving lives. More generally, in the fight against terrorism, against drug traffickers, or high intensity combat, telecommunications have become an essential element”.
The challenge for these devices is that they are always more efficient but also always smaller and lighter. In another wing of the company, a hundred operators are busy making the tens of millions of components that are installed each year, for all encrypted electronic cards. Some of them, whose installation is assisted by a robot, are today “smaller than dust”. “If these cards fall into enemy hands, we must be able to erase the elements that compose them”, notes Jean-Pascal Laporte. Miniaturization issues which are also part of the projects selected by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which has just paid the site a grant of 3 million euros.
To continue to carry out its activities, in particular its real-life tests, Thales plans to move to even larger premises by 2024. Located a few kilometers from the current location, the new building, the work of which must soon begin will initially welcome 600 people, before bringing together all of its booming activities.