About us

A century of expertise

The “Hazemeijer Fabriek voor Signaalapparaten” (“Hazemeijer Factory for Signal Devices”) was created at the request of the Royal Netherlands Navy, in order to outfit their ships HNMLS Java and HNMLS Sumatra with up-to-date Fire Control equipment. 

Now, over a century later, we are still established global experts when it comes to next level fire control and combat management, protecting troups all over the world from new threats such as drones and hypersonic missiles.

Ecosystem for knowledge-sharing

This foundation of trust is reflected in our entire local ecosystem, a close-nit network of knowledge institutes, customers, and supply chain partners. We continuously work together as part of the “Golden Triangle” in Defence, (government, knowledge institutes and industry) and research platforms such as “Nederland Radarland”, ensuring ongoing innovation and optimising our combined R&D spending to best support our national security and resilience.

We were proud to be placed number 9 in the 2024 R&D Top 30 published by ‘Technisch Weekblad’ in collaboration with VNO-NCW and TNO, and have every intention to remain in the top 10 in the years to come. Research and development will always be one of our main priorities.

A great example is the new project of POLARIS (Pathway towards Opportunities for Large scale Applications of Radically Integrated Systems), a government funded initiative to help realise new complex micro-electronic ‘Radio Frequency’ (RF)-systems for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), radar and telecommunications.

Shaping the future of AI and Quantum

Our focus is always on digital technologies that provide critical information for civil as well as military users. We believe that tech such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, extreme connectivity and the cloud will play a crucial role in our national and international security in the years to come. Thales is already part of the technical disruptions that will revolutionise the world of tomorrow.

When it comes to AI, our approach is based on the principles of validity, explainability, security and responsibility, which we consider the defining properties of trusted artificial intelligence. Our research on AI is designed to help us overcome industry obstacles such as minimising the impact of AI on sustainability, safeguarding the importance of human intelligence, and ensuring the transparency of AI decision making. We currently have over 600 experts working for cortAIx, our Group AI accelerator designed to expand the integration of AI technology into all of the company’s sectors of activity (defence, space, aerospace, cybersecurity and digital identity). Our Combat Management System TACTICOS is one of the solutions where AI integration will become more and more important.

Thales also has a vital role to play in quantum encryption. When quantum computer research reaches maturity and their power becomes more widely available, skilled hackers could cripple large networks in minutes. In anticipation of this evolution, hackers have already begun a Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (HNDL) strategy of stealing longer life data they cannot yet access - but will be able to with a quantum computer in the future.  We have developed solutions that are crypto-agile by design and can help defend against Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (HNDL) attacks, adopting new communications and key management protocols, and evolving certificates to increase quantum resistance.