Thales

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.

The Tech Times
Belgian SIGINT, Luc Majdalani at BlackSky, Tadaweb supported by Nancy Clark in Canada

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

BrusselsBelgian army pursues SIGINT upgrades

DubaiLuc Majdalani takes over BlackSky's business development in Golf

OttawaEx-diplomat Nancy Clark joins European OSINT provider Tadaweb

France
French intelligence services and financial prosecutors increase ties

Discussions between intelligence services and prosecutors probing financial crimes used to be carried out on an informal basis - but now they are intensifying, with an increasing focus on security risks raised by outsourcing anti-corruption work.

France, Saudi Arabia
French military veteran Bernard Velly redeploys in Saudi Arabia with Scopa Industries

Saudi Arabian private conglomerate Ajlan & Bros's subsidiary Scopa Industries has roped in influential consultants in a bid to carve a role for itself in the kingdom's developing sovereign defence industry. While Scopa's first priority is US defence, it is also trying to get closer to French companies.

United Kingdom
Airbus and OneWeb eye House of Lords influence thanks to the new Tory whip

With the UK forging ahead with space and defence programmes, Airbus Group's Westminster influence has received a boost from former Conservative MP Graham Evans's recent House of Lords appointment.

France, Italy, Turkey
Ankara bids to get into space observation's major league with Impro

Young public sector company Impro, which markets the images taken by Turkey's military satellites, has set up a partnership with Telespazio to help it boost Turkey's geospatial intelligence capacity ahead of the eagerly awaited arrival of the Gokturk-3 observation satellite.

Saudi Arabia
Nabil Barakat, ex-Thales agent in Gulf, courts Saudi conglomerate Ajlan & Bros

Saudi Arabian conglomerate Ajlan & Bros's new subsidiary Scopa Industries is keen to carve a place for itself in the local defence market with the help of foreign partners who have already made their mark.

France, Germany, Turkmenistan
Paris and Berlin in race to woo Ashgabat for business

French companies are making a beeline for Turkmenistan, which has opened its borders after two years, but there is competition from Germany, which is putting big efforts into business diplomacy to court the Turkmen authorities.