Thales to bid for rail signalling contract
LANGKAWI: Thales Group, a global defence, security, transportation and aerospace company, will bid for rail signalling contract for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (KL-SG HSR) project once the Malaysian and Singaporean governments give the project the green light.
Senior executive vice-president Pascale Sourisse said the company’s rail signalling solutions would suit the HSR project well.
“We will certainly proceed in bidding for the rail signalling tender once we have a clearer picture on the KL-SG HSR,” she told the New Straits Times at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace exhibition (Lima) 2019.
Thales’ Malaysia unit, Thales Malaysia Sdn Bhd, has been present in the country since 1980, with a local workforce of over 250 people, including personnel from its joint venture Sapura Thales Electronics (STE) in the field of communication systems.
Thales Malaysia also has strong partnerships with local industry players and has played an essential role in the country by sharing its technologies and expertise in the aerospace, defence, security and transportation sectors.
Apart from a long partnership with STE in the field of defence communications, Thales Malaysia is also open to new partnerships with local companies in other sectors — from oil and gas to marine to manufacturing and more.
“We have solutions for big and medium size manufacturing companies where we can share and provide services and solutions to further enhance production and operations,” she said.
At a ceremony held during day one of Lima 2019, Thales was recognised by Malaysia’s Defence Ministry with an award for the Most Outstanding Industrial Collaboration Programme.
The award was presented to Thales by ministry secretarygeneral Datuk Halimi Abd Manaf, witnessed by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu.
The award recognises Thales’ active participation in key projects designed to modernise the defence sector, including the integrated vehicle electronic architecture for the AV8 programme, and the ForceSHIELD integrated air defence system.
In both these projects, Thales works closely with local partners: Deftech for the AV8 programme and Global Komited, a company within the WestStar Group, for ForceSHIELD.
The AV8 offset obligation was fulfilled two years before its deadline thanks to a transfer of technology, local manufacturing and the creation of a signalling and communications railway centre of excellence.
With Sapura Group, Thales also launched the second generation of STE’s military VHF radio, the TRC 5200.
The radios are fully designed and developed in Malaysia by STE.
The first-generation of handheld radios was a huge commercial success with over 5,000 units sold worldwide to countries in Asia, Middle East, Africa and South America.
On the civil side, Thales is working with Novatis Resources Sdn Bhd on upgrading Kota Kinabalu’s Flight Information Region (FIR) Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems.
This was to improve air traffic services for safer and smoother travel within Malaysia’s airspace.
Kota Kinabalu’s FIR, one of two in the country, will be receiving a series of upgrades, including a new air traffic control system, radars, ground station, surveillance systems and distance measurement equipment in the next three years.