Thales begins full-scale Ground Fire radar production for France’s next-gen air defense.

Thales has started continuous production of its Ground Fire multifunction radar after successful factory tests in Limours, France. The radar will power France’s next-generation SAMP/T NG air defense system, boosting European radar capability amid rising missile threats.

Thales confirmed on October 3, 2025, the Ground Fire multifunction radar has moved into continuous series production following factory acceptance tests witnessed by France’s procurement agency at the company’s Limours site. The radar will equip the French variant of the next-generation SAMP/T NG air and missile defense system, replacing the legacy Arabel sensor and forming the heart of Eurosam’s updated fire control architecture. A 400-kilometer surveillance range, full 360-degree azimuth and 90-degree elevation coverage, and rapid one-second refresh give Ground Fire the reach and track purity required for today’s dense airspace and fast-evolving threats. Eight radars are slated for delivery to the French armed forces starting in 2026, aligning with Paris’s SAMP/T NG fielding timeline.
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The Thales Ground Fire is a fully digital S-band AESA radar offering 400 km range, full 360° coverage, and a one-second refresh rate. Designed for the SAMP/T NG system, it provides simultaneous surveillance and fire control, high resistance to jamming, and rapid mobility for modern air and missile defense operations (Picture source: Thales).

Ground Fire is a fully digital, multi-beam AESA operating in S-band. The array’s electronic agility allows simultaneous wide-area surveillance and precision fire control, with Doppler processing to separate small, low-radar-cross-section targets from clutter. Thales underscores an open systems architecture that eases integration with other European sensors and command networks, lowering latency between initial detection, correlation, and engagement. The company states it tripled surveillance and air defense radar output between 2022 and 2024, a surge intended to de-risk the schedule for the French program of record and strengthen supply chain resilience around key components such as transmit-receive modules and digital back-end processors.

For SAMP/T NG, the choice of Ground Fire is consequential because sensor performance gates interceptor performance. The radar’s hemispherical coverage and fast revisit are designed to maximize the next-generation Aster 30 missile envelope, improving midcourse track quality and discrimination against complex raids that may include aeroballistic and maneuvering threats.

Ground Fire gives a SAMP/T NG battery commander faster cueing, better raid-size handling, and higher confidence tracks across drones, cruise missiles, and short- to medium-range ballistic missiles. The one-second refresh supports time-sensitive engagements where early kinematic decisions preserve downrange energy for endgame intercepts. Mobility also matters. Thales highlights ISO-container equivalent dimensions and reduced encamp and decamp times, enabling the radar to displace with the launcher element and avoid pattern-of-life targeting. Combined with the system’s 360-degree full-elevation detection, batteries can cover flanks without reorientation, sustaining a recognized air picture even in mountainous or urban terrain where multipath and clutter often degrade legacy sets.

S-band AESA provides a practical compromise between range and resolution for composite air defense. Ground Fire’s digital beamforming supports multiple track beams and sidelobe control, limiting susceptibility to electronic attack while preserving track continuity during jamming or deception attempts. Interoperability with European battle management systems should allow Ground Fire to fuse with passive sensors and remote emitters, improving counter-UAS cueing and enabling distributed engagements when line-of-sight is constrained. These characteristics align with French and Italian priorities for layered air and missile defense that can move from base defense to theater coverage with minimal reconfiguration.

Europe’s radar industrial base is now a central pillar of air defense rearmament as NATO members confront persistent Russian drone incursions and a global spread of long-range precision strike threat. By bringing Ground Fire to continuous series production, Thales and Eurosam signal that Europe is scaling not only interceptor stocks but also the sensor foundation needed for credible integrated air and missile defense. French deliveries beginning in 2026 place Paris among the earliest adopters of a new European radar generation that can plug into multinational networks during peacetime air policing and surge to higher readiness in crisis. The production ramp also gives policymakers options for export and consortium buys that could harden NATO’s eastern flank and strengthen Franco-Italian leadership in the continent’s air defense enterprise.