Thales is pitching the CoastShield Maritime Surveillance system for the Philippine military and Coast Guard. Capable of detecting, tracking, and identifying maritime and low-flying aircraft up to 100 nautical miles away, the French company is looking to enhance Manila’s maritime domain awareness capabilities in its exclusive economic zone amid tensions in the South China Sea.
While the system was officially unveiled at Euronaval 2024, Naval News heard from Thales representatives in September about their pitch to the Philippines at the Asia Defense and Security Exhibition in Manila. Thales explained that the company is leveraging its prior experience in air and coastal surveillance for CoastShield.
A Thales representative told Naval News at the event:
“We’re proposing a radar solution for the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] and Air Force and as well as Coast Guard. The solution is called CoastShield. It includes Coast Watcher100 long-range radar, which detects surface and air targets up to 100 nautical mines, as well as the CoastShield command and control center. We’re proposing that to the Philippine Coast Guard to enhance their maritime surveillance and be able to type any type of targets in their EEZ [exclusive economic zone],”
Another representative stated that the system could operate in weather conditions up to Sea State four, and could accommodate additional sensors and capabilities, such as an automatic identification system, satellite communications, radio systems, and more. With CoastShield, a customer could order one station or a nationwide network depending on their needs. The system is in use with two countries in Southeast Asia, and other components such as the Coast Watcher radar and command and control station are in use by France and Jamaica.
The Philippine Navy and Coast Guard currently operate numerous Japanese-funded coastal watch stations equipped with short-ranged 24-nautical-mile Furuno radars stationed at key maritime chokepoints and across the vast archipelago of 7641 islands. One representative stated that a single CoastShield station was the equivalent of 10 existing stations. According to Thales, CoastShield could connect to this existing network and would be “economical” thanks to their command and control integration and sensors.
“We are able to integrate their existing assets. They already have some vessel tracking radar, which provides a different, let’s say, performance than the Coast Watcher 100, but we are able to integrate that into the CoastShield command and control center to aggregate all these existing assets,” a Thales representative said.
A Euronaval press release on CoastShield claims that its command and control center “ can be combined with Artificial Intelligence capabilities” to help operators identify threats faster.
Thales is reportedly in discussions with the French government to provide financing to the Philippine Coast Guard for CoastShield. With Paris’ 25% stake in the company, a Thales representative told Naval News that Thales is “a strategic company for France.” He further claimed that they are examining previous cooperation on a project with Sumitomo that saw Tokyo fund the Philippine national air traffic management system as another possible scheme for financing.
France and the Philippines have deepened their defense cooperation amid the latter’s search for new security partners as disputes with China ramped up in the West Philippine Sea, a section of the South China Sea that Manila claims under its exclusive economic zone. The Southeast Asian country, which had only just concluded a decades-long counterinsurgency, was ill-prepared and therefore had little of the maritime and aerial domain awareness necessary to monitor the West Philippine Sea.
The U.S. and Japan have provided support through the transfer of drones and funding surveillance radars, and new partners such as Canada have assisted by providing software and satellite access. While France has already provided several patrol vessels and stepped up military exchanges, its funding of capabilities for the Philippines has lagged behind more recent initiatives by other allies and partners.
“With CoastShield, Thales ensures a nationwide coastal surveillance solution with early detection of the full threat spectrum, based on a smart set of sensors and its unique experience in Artificial Intelligence. This launch marks a significant step in our commitment to support nations in protecting coastlines and off-shore critical assets, and reinforcing sovereignty,” said Lionel de Castellane, Vice-President for Coastal and Civils Radars, Thales.
