The US Navy chooses Thales CAPTAS-4 sonar for its new Constellation frigates

If there is one area in which French defense know-how is universally recognized, it is anti-submarine warfare. Whether it is its frigates, its submarines, or its maritime patrol aircraft, the French Navy has very often demonstrated advanced technicality and capabilities, even surpassing those of the very effective allies. Americans and British. Thus, on several occasions in recent years, the new French Aquitaine-class frigates have won the "Hook'em" competition organized by the US Navy, rewarding the best NATO crew(s) in the field of anti-submarine warfare.

If the French Navy reaps the honors in this area, it is partly due to operational know-how and very demanding training of its crews, but also thanks to particularly efficient equipment optimized for this mission. Thus, if the French FREMM class Aquitaine has neither the speed nor the displacement of its Italian cousin, it has on the other hand a much higher acoustic discretion, in particular thanks to the use of fixed pitch propellers optimized for this mission. . But it is indeed in the field of Sonar that we must look for the best arguments for this operational excellence, and in particular in the CAPTAS-4 variable-depth towed sonar which equips the new French frigates, but also the Italian, Spanish or still British. And the list of CAPTAS customers will further expand with the most prestigious of references in this field, since according to Rear Admiral Casey Moton, which oversees the construction of the new USS Constellation class frigates for the US Navy (and which are derived from the Italian FREMMs), Thales sonar was specifically selected to equip these ships.

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