Responding to the evolving underwater environment, Thales developed SonoFlash. The company states that this new-generation sonobuoy builds on decades of expertise in sonars and acoustic sensors to offer an ambitious new solution to navies.
“The French Navy will be the first operational user of SonoFlash, which will be deployed by the modernized Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft and NH90 Caiman tactical transport helicopters. It will be delivered to the French Navy from 2025.”
Thales Defence on LinkedIn
The French defence electronics company also published this video of the test involving a French Navy ATL2 MPA:
About SonoFlash
SonoFlash is a new-generation A-size sonobuoy developed to meet a French Navy anti-submarine warfare (ASW) requirement. As well as forming part of a broader effort to re-establish a sovereign industrial capability in sonobuoy design and manufacture, the programme is also growing an ‘ecosystem’ of small and medium enterprises – such as TELERAD, SelhaGroup and Realmeca – to support local production.
Unlike other sonobuoys on the market, which are either active or passive in operation, SonoFlash offers both modes by integrating a high-powered transmitter and a passive low-frequency directional receiver into a single acoustic buoy. This dual modality is intended to increase tactical flexibility, reduce the overall number of sonobuoys needed in a field, and open up opportunities for multistatic operation.
Following feasibility studies in 2016, Thales was awarded a contract by France’s Direction générale de l’armement (DGA) in January 2021 for the full development, qualification, and production of SonoFlash. Qualification is planned by late 2024, with the French Navy planning to field SonoFlash on modernised Atlantique ATL2 maritime patrol aircraft and NH90 Caïman helicopters.
Thales and DGA have already completed a number of key test and trials events ahead of completing formal qualification. Trials were performed in the Mediterranean in May 2022 to verify the mechanical deployment of the SonoFlash acoustic antennas after water entry. DGA has also worked with Thales to measure and characterize the acoustic performance of the new sonobuoy at the DGA range facility located in a lake in the Alps. The test that Thales announced recently on its LinkedIn account (launch and deployment of the SonoFlash from a French Navy ATL 2 MPA) is the latest milestone in the development phase of the SonoFlash program.
Thales is already marketing its new sonobuoy on the export market. Naval News has previously covered it at Sea Air Space in the USA and DX Korea in South Korea.
