Thales has rebranded and brought under an overarching concept its wide range of air defense equipment comprising missiles, radars and command-and-control suites, Alex Cresswell, senior vice president for land defense, said.

The advanced air defense concept uses a series of brand names to position a product in an overall system of systems. Thales will also sell the gear on a standalone basis.

Thales is seeking to tailor its offer to a country’s concept of operations or doctrine, and is looking to take part in the consultative phase as the authorities draw up specifications for an air defense program, Creswell said July 11 at the Farnborough International Airshow.

For example, Thales through its ThalesRaytheonSystems joint venture has pitched its command-and-control system — dubbed Skyview — in the United Arab Emirates’ competition for an integrated air operations center. The center would oversee central functions for a layered air and missile defense system.

Lockheed Martin is the rival in the UAE tender for an extended air defense ground environment-transformation program, estimated at $1 billion.

Thales’ air defense architecture uses the following names to group its products and systems:

- Shield refers to air defense coverage, including Stateshield for air and ballistic missile defense for a country or region, Zoneshield for air defense of an area, and Forceshield for protection of convoys or mobile troops.

- Skyview is the command-and-control system.

- Ground refers to Groundmaster air defense radars.

- Control refers to mobile weapons coordination stations such as Controlview or Controlmaster 200.

- Rapid refers to vehicle-mounted weapons, including the Rapidfire 40mm gun or Rapidranger, a very short range missile system.

- Star refers to very short range missiles, including the Starstreak and VT1 Crotale weapon.

Thales has pitched the Rapidranger missile system to the British Army and to countries in Asia and the Middle East, a Thales spokesperson said.

A Rapidranger system, consisting of four light missiles and a stabilized sight, is mounted on a Zephyr 6×6 protected vehicle from Creation UK, displayed at the Thales pavilion.

Missiles such as the anti-air Starstreak or an anti-tank weapon can be loaded onto the system.