These days, the Thales site in Koblenz celebrates a special anniversary: The subsidiary at the rivers Rhine and Moselle has been in existence for 60 years; just as long as the good relationship with its strategic customer, the German Armed Forces.

In Koblenz, Thales supports the Germany Armed Forces in mission preparation and follow-up with specialised simulation solutions that enable different users such as aircraft and combat vehicle crews or infantry forces to train their skills and abilities. For more than 30 years, simulation technology has been developed, produced and sold here. This includes simulators for firearms training, military pilot training, and all related services. Simulations play a key role in handling, procedural, behavioural and communication training within all areas of deployment and on all deployment levels. They make an important contribution to the training and education of the mission forces, and ultimately to the success of missions.

The systems range from classic firing training to complete mission training for vehicle crews on air, water and/or land vehicles up to individual and group training for military users and civilian security authorities: small arms trainers, door gunner training concept, weapon-specific basic training, mission-specific scenarios, analysis and evaluation options, traffic management systems, and communication tracking and interference simulation systems (KESS). The simulation systems can be used individually or as a whole system within an interconnected and combined training scenario. Being the supplier of these simulation systems and training services used worldwide, Thales in Germany provides central support for all customers.

60 years ago, the Thales site in Koblenz started its activities with services for radar systems. This includes, for example, the maintenance management for air surveillance radars or the obsolescence management for avionic components. Furthermore, Thales offers services in the field of maintenance and repair of industrial systems for civil and military applications.

In our fast-paced times, looking back on such a history with its long-term customer relationships is something special for us as a company. I congratulate the colleagues of Thales Deutschland at the Koblenz site on this anniversary and would like to thank them for their commitment. Koblenz has plenty to offer: city and cultural life, a variety of leisure and sports activities, and a wide and first-class range of educational opportunities – the University of Koblenz, for example, is one of the youngest universities in Germany. These are all factors that are important for a company location. Koblenz is an IT-location, which is very important for us being a technology company. Be it for the purpose of networking, information exchange or the recruitment of qualified employees. This strong connection does not only exist with Koblenz but also with our strategic customer, the German Armed Forces, with whom we have been cooperating as partners for 60 years.

Oliver Dörre, CEO and Country Director Thales in Germany

 

60 years of Thales in Koblenz: Background

With more than 2,000 years of history, Koblenz – the third biggest city in Rhineland-Palatinate, located on the confluence of the rivers Rhine and Mosel – is one of the oldest cities in Germany. The city is an important industry and science location, and being the regional centre of Rhineland-Palatinate, it is home of different administrative authorities of the state and the Mayen-Koblenz district. Higher federal authorities are located here: The Federal Archives, which have been established here in 1952, or the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw), established through the merger of the Federal Office for Information Management and Information Technology and the Federal Office of Defence Technology and Procurement (BWB).

In 1963, the BWB entered into a contract with the French company BRONZAVIA on ERB radio equipment and thus participated in the birth of the Thales site in Koblenz. BRONZAVIA established a repair facility at the Koblenz site, the CITAIR Elektronik GmbH. In 1970, this small maintenance company employing 30 persons evolved into the Thomson-CSF Elektronik-Wartungsgesellschaft – the only German subsidiary of the French Group for defence electronics at that time. With the development of the Franco-German Air Defence Missile System ROLAND, the Koblenz subsidiary evolved into being the key provider for the repair, modification and retrofitting of the German ROLAND systems.

The development of their own products started in 1992 with SASIE, a system analysis and evaluation unit for complex weapon systems of the German Navy. This development policy consistently focussed on performance increase and new technologies.

Since 1989, Thomson-CSF had been growing far beyond its French roots. Acquisitions and interests in Europe, Australia, Asia, South Africa, the Middle East, and North and South America consolidated its position as a global player. At the end of 2000, a change of name reflected the new orientation: Thomson-CSF became Thales. The Koblenz site with its currently about 150 employees is assigned to the globally operating Training & Simulation business area, which has further subsidiaries in France, Australia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.