France has the military gear everyone’s desperate to get

LIMOURS, France — About 50 kilometers south of Paris, a factory is looking to double production of one of France’s best-selling pieces of military kit — Ground Master air surveillance radars.

It's a result of President Emmanuel Macron's pressure to boost defense production in response to the war in Ukraine and the need to upgrade Europe's militaries after years of neglect, as well as from rising demand across the world.

During his new year's address to the armed forces, Macron listed Thales, the developer of the radar system, among the defense companies that have significantly ramped up manufacturing in the past two years.

But the Thales-owned factory in Limours, a small town of about 6,500, is facing issues that are bedeviling the defense sector across Europe as it rethinks every aspect of production and runs into issues like expanding factories and hiring more workers.

“For the assembly lines to cope with the increase of demand, we’re doubling the teams and are in the process of working on two shifts instead of one to make sure we have more production in Limours,” said Yves Descourvieres, the head of product management for surveillance multi-mission radars.  

And there's no question that the radars are needed.

They're designed to detect air threats and identify jet fighters, missiles and helicopters. They also have new capabilities allowing them to distinguish drones from birds. From Limours, the €30 million GM 400 Alpha can see aircraft above Bordeaux, 500 kilometers away. GM 200s have a shorter range of between 250 kilometers and 350 kilometers.

Thales — a company jointly controlled by the French state and fighter jet maker Dassault Aviation — is Europe’s radar leader and third in the world behind Lockheed Martin and Raytheon of the U.S. 

The defense and security contractor has sold 200 GM radars worldwide to 32 different countries since 2008, including 40 in 2023 alone. Ukraine also bought a GM 200 system last year.

With more than 1,100 employees, the Limours factory tests the radars' antennas in blue-walled rooms designed to muffle echoes, before assembling them in a large area with a French flag and pictures of Ground Masters in action. Security is tight: An officer checks phones and pictures taken by visitors before they leave to make sure no industrial secrets are taken out of the facility. 

Ongoing process

Since the war in Ukraine started, the French government has urged companies to produce more weapons, faster and cheaper. 

However, the reality is complicated.

"It's an ongoing process. Up until now, we were producing around 10 radars a year, now the target is over 20 a year,” Descourvieres said.

The company is revamping every part of the production line. The Limours factory now has four test chambers to fine-tune the antennas, up from three, and has set up 17 testing zones for the assembled radars, compared with a dozen a few months ago.  

To speed up assembly, Thales coordinates with suppliers. "We need a perfect synchronization of arrivals of equipment to avoid waste and wait," said Eric Marceau, the vice president of strategy for the radar business.

Another challenge is hiring workers. Making radars needs skills ranging from mechanical engineering to software development and radio-frequency expertise. And like many defense plants, Thales' radar factory is located far from cities.

“What is a little less easy is to bring young talent to Limours," Descourvieres complained, saying it would be easier if the factory were located in a posh part of Paris.

A key defense technology

As European governments get serious about making their militaries war-ready, and Ukraine fights a life-and-death struggle against Russia, air surveillance radars are a must-have.

A French official, speaking on condition of  anonymity because they’re not allowed to talk to the press, described radars as “the first building block in ensuring sovereignty over one’s airspace.” 

Thales' GM systems, which are mobile and usually mounted on trucks, have fully digital long-range radar able to identify targets ranging from very high to very low altitudes. It tracks everything from low-flying highly maneuverable tactical aircraft to unconventional devices such as UAVs or cruise missiles.

“It's like watching your garden in the dark with a torch," said Marceau. Now, with the new tech innovations, "it’s the equivalent of having 15 torches watching at the same time.”

The French company's radar clients include far-away countries such as Indonesia — which bought 13 GM 400 Alphas last year — and Morocco, but also customers in Europe including the Netherlands, where Thales also has a radar factory, Denmark, Finland and Estonia. 

Thales’ air surveillance radars are also a key element of France’s recent push to deepen defense ties with countries previously under Russia’s grip.

In the past months, Paris sold three GM 200s to Armenia and one to Moldova — the first time the country has bought Western military gear. Moldova is slated to get another one funded by the EU's European Peace Facility.