On Thursday 27 January, the S1850M Volume Search Radar for the first French Horizon frigate was shipped to France. At the Hengelo site of Thales Nederland it was hoisted on board of a freight ship and arrived today at the DCN Shipyard in L'Orient (Brittany). The system will be installed on the First of Class Horizon frigate. Later this year it will be subjected to a series of tests.

The S1850M is derived from the SMART-L radar in a cooperation structure with Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS). This program concerns the French and Italian Horizon frigates and the Type 45 Destroyers for the English Navy. All in all, twelve systems will be produced with identical configurations. The S1850M is a bit different from the SMART-L. It has a slightly higher rotation speed, improved anti-jamming capabilities, a flexible signal processor and local consoles are used.

Together with the seven SMART-L systems for the Netherlands and German navies, the Thales SMART-L/S1850M has become the de facto standard volume search radar of the European NATO navies.