As well as providing the avionics equipment for France’s high-profile Rafale program, Thales is active in the fighter upgrade business. As new-build combat aircraft programs become fewer and further between, so the military aircraft upgrade business has increased dramatically. Thales and its predecessors supplied most of the combat avionics for French-built fighters for decades, so it is only natural that the company is heavily involved in systems upgrades for those earlier aircraft that remain in service around the world. Here at Le Bourget, the company and its joint-venture partner Sagem are displaying a Mirage F1 to represent an upgrade that is currently under way for the Moroccan air force.
Mirage F1 Retrofit
To provide modernization solutions for the older generations of Mirage fighters, such as the F1, 5 and 50, Thales has formed a joint-venture partnership with Sagem called ASTRAC (Aviation Sagem Thales Retrofit Avions de Combat). ASTRAC’s contract with Morocco covers 27 aircraft and is a thorough reworking of the aircraft’s systems and combat capabilities. Development of the F1 upgrade began at the end of 2006 and is still at a relatively early stage, although the new radar has already been flown. ASTRAC expects to deliver the first aircraft in three years, and the remainder at two per month thereafter. The partnership is also talking with other international Mirage F1 operators, such as Colombia.
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