Thales

Spotlight | France
Long-awaited Falcon Archange enters test phase

A major French intelligence programme, dubbed 'Archange', aimed at strengthening France's intelligence gathering capabilities, is currently being tested. This project is aimed at improving their performances in the field, whose weaknesses have been highlighted by the war in Ukraine.

Vietnam
ASIADEV guides French firms in Vietnam

Consultancy firm ASIADEV uses its broad Franco-Vietnamese network to steer French companies wanting to do business in Vietnam, especially in the defence industry, in which Hanoi has been investing significantly in recent years.

France
French intelligence services' spending surges before budget boost

The French government has earmarked more funding for intelligence over the next five years, but France's intelligence services, particularly the DGSE, have already exceeded their 2022 provisional budgets.

Spotlight | France, Saudi Arabia
Airbus keeps low profile in Saudi mission-critical communications bid

Now the leading French mission-critical communications provider, Airbus is seeking to earn a share of the Saudi defence ministry's mission-critical communications contract. But delays on France's RRF radio network of the future project have the firm treading very cautiously in Riyadh.

France, Russia, UAE
Guillaume de Villiers takes luxury property outfit Barnes and security and intelligence firm Oriol to Dubai

Guillaume de Villiers, a veteran of private security and luxury property in Russia, is prospecting in Dubai, a safe haven for wealthy Russians fleeing Moscow and Western sanctions.

The Tech Times
Neptune Silo chooses ManTech, Galileo's second generation, Senate blind spot on USCYBERCOM partners

From SIGINT to GEOINT and OSINT and a dose of cyber, each week we report on events both big and small that matter in the community of technical intelligence providers.

QuanticoManTech, top provider to NCIS's Neptune Silo unit

Brussels/MadridTecnobit to handle Galileo's second-generation secure communications

WashingtonSenate blurry on US Cyber Command's cyber intelligence operations

Armenia, France
French military diplomacy treads carefully in South Caucasus

By planning to appoint a new French defence attaché in Yerevan, France aims to bring Armenia closer to the West. But in a region torn between multiple antagonistic forces, this new role would have to be carried out with care.

Spotlight | Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom
On the run from Mohammed bin Salman, King Abdullah's key arms broker finds refuge in Beirut

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's investigators are still on the hunt for Salah Fustok, the main negotiator of arms contracts with the National Guard under King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. The fugitive agent holds secrets about many Western defence companies' business dealings in Saudi Arabia.

France, Vietnam
Convicted Vietnamese defence agent Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan's French connections

Wanted on corruption charges, the former CEO of AIC Group, Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan, who served as a go-between for Western defence companies in Vietnam, is now on the run in China. Before that, she built an extensive network of contacts in France's political and defence circles.

France, Middle East
Gulf nations show little interest in France's special forces seminar

SOFINS, the trade fair designed to put French defence industry players in touch with their special forces and intelligence clients, is traditionally the go-to place to impress foreign delegations. However, this year's event failed to garner as much attention from the Gulf as its organisers would have liked.

China, Saudi Arabia
Norinco enlists Riyadh consultants from Saudi defence ministry

With the Saudi defence industry in its sights, the Chinese defence giant Norinco hopes to ride the China-Saudi Arabia momentum to further its interests in Riyadh. To do so, it intends to widen its circle of local business partners.

The Corporate Intelligence Village Voice
Prisme Intelligence in Paris, Field Intelligence in London, Sibylline's hiring changing line-up, BAE minus Powell

Appointments, financial results, new contracts: each week, we report on events both big and small that matter in the global corporate intelligence community.

ParisFormer officer Mai-Linh Camus heads into consultancy

LondonAnwar Darkazally wants corporate intelligence to go green

LondonSibylline keeps hiring

LondonBAE and Lord Powell part ways

Israel
Latin America continues to attract Israeli cyber firms

Daniel Geifman, previously with Intellexa, has recently launched Totem Solutions, a firm exporting cyber solutions to Latin America. Despite the negative press it has received there, Israeli cyber remains sought-after in that part of the world.

France, Poland
Poland's Air Force Institute of Technology turns into defence partnerships hub

Poland is pursuing the modernisation of its airborne surveillance capacities with French and other European defence companies through its Air Force Institute of Technology.

Saudi Arabia
Khaled Biyari, chief of Saudi Arabia's mission-critical communications network

Sidelining Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Military Industries, Mohammed bin Salman has tasked the deputy defence ministry with overseeing the construction of a mission-critical communications network for the country's defence institutions.

China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United States
Scopa turns away from US and towards Moscow and Beijing, OFAC warned

The Saudi defence firm has abruptly brought all of its operations for the US to an end. Despite clinching a raft of deals with major US and European firms, Scopa has decided to favour a rapprochement between its parent company Ajlan & Bros and Russian and Chinese firms instead.