Thales, France's technological giant in defence, aerospace and cybersecurity
If the British company BAE Systems is the European leader in the defence sector, the industrial giant Thales Group is France's leading cross-sector technology mega-company and the largest supplier of electronic systems, equipment and applications to the French Armed Forces and much of the world.
Ranked among the top 20 defence companies globally in terms of turnover, it has an effective presence in 68 countries across five continents, including Spain. Its most recent contract comes from Thailand, signed during the Defence & Security 2025 fair held from 10 to 13 November in the capital, Bangkok. Thales will contribute its friend-or-foe identification (IFF) systems to the modernisation by the Spanish shipyard Navantia of the amphibious assault ship Chang LPD-792 and the ocean patrol vessels Pattani OPV-511 and Naratiwat OPV-512 of the Royal Thai Navy.
From Thailand, Thales' senior management and sales executives have moved on to the United Arab Emirates, where the 19th edition of the important Dubai Airshow is taking place this week, from 17 to 21 November. At the event, the French technology giant will showcase its latest developments in the fields of electronics, artificial intelligence and software-defined tactical radios for land, naval, air, space and cyber defence, as well as in various areas of civil applications, including civil air traffic management.
Thales describes itself as ‘the world leader in aeronautical C4I systems, advanced air defence, data protection and airport security’ and ‘the European leader in defence electronics and cybersecurity’. This is the result of concentrating its activities in three major business units: defence, aerospace and cyber & digital. These are areas in which its senior managers enjoy the invaluable support of the President of the Republic, the French government and its institutions, which do not hesitate to fight for Thales to win contracts abroad.
Its business lines focus on the design, development and production of communications, command and control systems; mission, surveillance, detection, protection, intelligence and electronic warfare systems, such as radars, sonars and advanced optronics. It even has a division dedicated to simulation and training equipment for helicopter and civil and military aircraft pilots, as well as for the training of military, police and civilian security professionals.
Ten years at the helm of the French technology company
The French state is its main shareholder, with a 26.06% stake, almost on a par with that held by aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation, which owns 26.05%. Its revenue growth in the 2024 financial year was 11.66%, raising the corporation's sales volume to €20.577 billion, according to its annual report published on 4 March 2025. Indra, which is in some ways the equivalent of Thales in Spain, had a turnover of €4.843 billion in 2024, according to data from the national technology company.
The significance of Thales' turnover is even more evident when compared with the 2024 report on the ‘Economic and social impact of the defence, security, aeronautics and space industry’, produced by the consulting firm PwC, which compiles data from more than 100 companies affiliated with TEDAE, the Spanish Association of Aeronautics, Defence, Space and Security Technology Companies. The turnover of all these companies' products and services in aeronautics, defence, space and security amounted to €16.153 billion last year, which is 21.5% less than Thales' sales in the same year.
Headquartered in the financial centre of La Défense in Paris, the man who has been at the helm of the Thales Group as executive chairman for almost 10 years – since 23 December 2014, to be precise – is 55-year-old engineer Patrice Caine, a graduate of the École Polytechnique and École des Mines. With his in-depth knowledge of the French nuclear sector and extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, he held important positions in the French central administration during the premiership of Lionel Jospin (1997-2002).
The goal that Patrice Caine has set for his senior managers for 2025 is to achieve growth of between 5% and 6%, which means achieving sales of between €21.7 billion and €21.9 billion. To this end, he has a workforce of more than 83,000 people, of whom he boasts that ‘around 33,000 are engaged in research, development and innovation’. This means that 39.75% of the workforce is involved in R&D&I, with resources of no less than €4.2 billion in 2024, 20.41% of sales.
Its main market is concentrated in Europe, which accounts for just over half of its sales. In 2024, it reached €12.442 billion, mostly from contracts in France (29%), the United Kingdom (25%) and the rest of the continent (25%). The United States and Canada market accounted for 14% of turnover, followed by Asia (10%), the Middle East (6%) and Australia and New Zealand (4%). Thales has a significant shareholding (33%) in the surface-to-air missile manufacturer Eurosam (33%), the Naval Group shipyard (25%), the Italian company Telespazio (33%) and the Franco-American Thales Raytheon Systems (50%), the latter with factories in France and the United States.
Thales technologies in the five domains
At first glance, Thales' high revenues in the United Kingdom are striking. This is because the corporation acquired the British company Racal Electronics in June 2000, making the islands the company's second largest industrial base. And last March, it created the company cortAIx in the islands, with headquarters also in France, Canada and Singapore, which brings together different activities in the field of artificial intelligence in order to integrate them into weapons systems.
On the military side, the corporation's sales rose to £10.969 billion (+13.9% increase) in the last financial year, almost half of the revenue obtained in 2024. Among the major contracts to which it contributes its technologies are the Franco-Italian Horizon-class air defence frigates, with a displacement of 7,000 tonnes, and the multi-purpose FREMM and FDI classes, with 6,000 and 4,500 tonnes respectively. It is also involved in the new Suffren-class nuclear attack submarines and the future third-generation SNLE-3G submarines, for which preparatory construction work began in March at the Cherbourg shipyard.
Thales is also involved in the Scorpion programme, which, by 2034, will gradually equip hundreds of tanks and 4x4, 6x6 and 8x8 wheeled all-terrain vehicles of the French Army with an advanced combat information system. And, of course, it is involved in the future Franco-German-Spanish FCAS fighter aircraft programme, in the Rafale fighters ‒its contribution represents 25% of the value of the aircraft, with the Spectra countermeasures and electronic warfare system and the RBE2 radar‒, and in the Falcon 8X intelligence aircraft for the French Air Force.
In 2024, the aerospace division had sales of €5.471 billion (+4.8% growth). In April 2006, Thales acquired the space business of the French company Alcatel and formed Thales Alenia Space, of which it owns 67% and the Italian company Leonardo the remainder. Dedicated to the development and manufacture of communications satellites, electronic and radio frequency equipment, its subsidiary Thales Alenia Space España is based in Tres Cantos (Madrid) and has been instrumental in the manufacture of the two Spanish secure communications satellites already in orbit, Spainsat NG and Hisdesat. Thales's smaller but growing business is its cyber-digital component, which had sales of €4.024 billion (+1.4%) in 2024.
Thales has significant operations in Spain through its subsidiary Thales España, which has more than 1,600 employees and several manufacturing and development centres, providing technologies to the Air Force, Army and Navy in a wide variety of systems and equipment. Thales's history dates back to 1968, when it was founded under the name Thomson-CSF, the result of the merger of Thomson-Houston-Hotchkiss-Brandt and the Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil (CSF), dedicated to the production of small arms, telephones, portable radios, televisions and radars.
During the so-called period of cohabitation in the second half of the 1990s between the liberal-conservative president Jacques Chirac and his socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin, Thomson-CSF merged with Dassault Électronique, a subsidiary of the aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation, at the suggestion of the then Minister of Defence, Alain Richard. The company underwent a major reorganisation and in December 2000 was renamed Thales, the French name of the philosopher, mathematician and astronomer Thales of Miletus (624 BC-546 BC), one of the seven sages of ancient Greece.