ALMATY, Kazakhstan, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- The Thales group of France has established an industrial presence in Kazakhstan for production of tactical radio units.
The VHF PR4G F@stnet and HF Skyf@st families of software radio products will be produced for the Kazak armed forces by Thales Kazakhstan Engineering, a joint venture company that opened has opened a facility in Almaty.
Thales said the production capacity of the facility is fully scaleable and initially configured to deliver a batch of approximately 400 units by the end of this year and will progressively ramp up production capacity.
"We are proud to see the cooperation between our two countries take shape and to translate the transfer of know-how into state-of-the-art solutions for our armed forces," said Smagulov Bolat Sovetovich, president of Kazakhstan Engineering.
"Our local engineers have already been trained and are excited to be part of this co-production effort between Kazakhstan and France."
"Today's inauguration is a perfect example of Thales's strengthened efforts to bring the expertise of a global technology leader close to our customers and establish an industrial footprint in close cooperation with Kazakh industry players," said Blaise Jaeger, senior vice president, Thales International.
Thales said its PR4G F@stnet family represents the best technology available today to match real operational situations in the battlespace. Features include a smart free channel search solution to overcome frequency shortage issues and counter wide-band jammers, and a unique simultaneous voice and capability to handle intense data traffic in a modern battlefield management system.
