14:31 GMT, February 11, 2009 Thales Nederland has formalised a contract with BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies Limited for two S1850M Long Range Volume Search Radars to be installed on the new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy. The carriers are being built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance comprising the UK Ministry of Defence, BVT Surface Fleet, Babcock Marine, BAE Systems and Thales.

The first radar system is scheduled to be delivered during 2011 and the second radar system in 2013. The scope includes minor enhancements to the earlier Type 45 design to meet the specific needs of aircraft carrier operation.

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Additional information:

The S1850M surveillance radar is based on Thales's SMART-L radar and was previously delivered to the Type 45 vessels for the UK Royal Navy and the Horizon class vessels of the French and Italian Navies, in a collaboration between BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies Limited and Thales Nederland. The system is capable of 3D long range automatic detection, track initiation and tracking of air targets. Its performance has been demonstrated in many tests and the system has proven to be capable of detecting stealth targets in high clutter environments.