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World Defense & Security Industry News - Thales & PAL
 
 
Dubai Airshow 2017: Meet PAL & Thales' new Force Multiplier surveillance platform
 
At this year Dubai Airshow, Thales and PAL Aerospace are unveiling the Force Multiplier, a new platform with an endurance of more than 10 flight hours which is specifically designed to provide an operational service that meets the immediate needs of both government and private customers in terms of maritime and ground surveillance.
     
Dubai Airsho Meet PA Thales ew Force Multiplier surveillance platform 640 001PAL Aerospace and Thales joint their know-how to propose a new maritime and ground surveillance platform, the Force Multiplier
(Credit: PAL Aerospace)
     
Based on the Bombardier Dash-8 Q300, the Force Multiplier will include search and rescue at sea, life raft deployment, immigration control, surveillance of sporting events and forest fires, as well as border surveillance. Users will be able to reserve flight hours as early as 2018, offering them an on-demand operational platform, without acquisition or maintenance support costs.

Brian Chafe, Chief Executive Officer of PAL Aerospace, stated, “The announcement of this ISR asset is transformational for our organization. We are committed to delivering this platform so our customers can react when they need it most. We are confident that our clients will appreciate the approach that we have taken to provide a flexible, proven, reliable and low-risk solution.”

Rick Hillier, General (retired – Former Chief of the Canadian Defense Staff), Chairman - PAL Aerospace, LLC stated “We are pleased to announce this significant investment at the Dubai Air Show to reinforce our commitment to this region and our over 10 year commitment to the people of the UAE.”

"The entire CarteNav team is excited by the launch of Force Multiplier and are pleased to be a partner on this initiative. We are looking forward to delivering advanced ISR mission system and information management capabilities for a diversity of end customer’s mission requirements. In addition, Force Multiplier is a platform that is ideal for ongoing innovation and advanced product development.” said Paul Evans, President of CarteNav Solutions.

Thales, as system supplier, will provide the Searchmaster multirole surveillance radar, offering an unbeatable level of performance, and the Amascos multi-mission system, with its extended, scalable surveillance capabilities, as well as the ground station. Other mission systems include a Wescam MX-15 HDI EO/IR gimball and a Saab R4A AIS sensor. A typical crew consists of six people: two pilots, one tactical coordinator, one radar operator and two observers.

As a result, it will be possible to prepare mission data and share the tactical situation in real time. In addition, operators will have the opportunity to replay and analyse their missions. All of these features, which constitute input factors for real-time decision-making, will help ensure operators act efficiently and at exactly the right time. PAL will operate the service aircraft.

The aircraft will also be available for training of future flight crews, as customers participate in platform acquisition programmes.