THALES TEAM STRENGTHENED FOR UK SOOTHSAYER PROGRAMME
4 Jul 02. Thales Defence Information Systems’ bid as prime contractor for the UK MoD’s Electronic Warfare (EW) programme Soothsayer, worth some £150 million, has been strengthened with the signing of an exclusive teaming agreement with Austin Info Systems (AIS) Inc of Texas, USA.
Soothsayer is the next generation tactical land SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) system incorporating advanced signal analysis for both communications and radar band signals and will progressively replace the MoD’s Odette and INCE systems provided by Thales.
A key element of Thales’ solution is the comprehensive Management Information System (MIS) which will provide applications for the generation of the electronic order of battle, mission planning, tasking and reporting as well as integration of the tactical sensors, the internal communications systems and other ISTAR assets. AIS’s suite of intelligence analysis and reporting products under development and currently fielded to the US Army will provide a significant and low-risk contribution to the MIS requirements.
Mark Cook, managing director, Electronic Warfare at Thales Defence Ltd, commented: “The addition of AIS to the Thales Soothsayer team provides a powerful extension to the team’s capabilities and is complementary to the relationship established for the US tactical land SIGINT programme Prophet. This teaming agreement coupled with the long-standing working relationship and in-service product capability of QinetiQ will provide an affordable, low-risk solution to the MIS requirement.”
Jim Wade, President and CEO, Austin Info Systems, stated: “AIS is very pleased to be a part of the Thales’ Soothsayer team and looks forward to providing AIS’s MS Windows suite of intelligence products and experience to support this key UK MoD EW programme.”