Thales seeks Indian suppliers after 5-year sourcing run

Thales Group wants to expand Indian sourcing after buying more than €1.2 billion of goods and services there over five years, Chief Executive Patrice Caine said in an Economic Times interview published Oct. 26.

For Thales, the Oct. 26 interview frames India as more than a sales market: the five-year procurement total equals about 5.5% of the €22 billion figure used by the Economic Times to describe the French group’s scale, according to Atlas360 calculations.

“When I look at our radars, missiles, and electronic warfare equipment, it is clear that India has the capabilities to contribute to the development of next-generation systems,” Caine said. “We can build on these capabilities in India and, in fact, we started selecting Indian suppliers several years ago.”

Caine said Indian partners offer quality, technical skills and competitive costs. “We already have products in our supply chain that are manufactured in India and sold across global markets,” he said.

He also said Thales wants to deepen what he called Indianisation of defense products. “This means going beyond transferring production to India to transferring design authority as well,” Caine said, referring to giving Indian teams greater responsibility for product design rather than only manufacturing.

Thales is one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense manufacturers, with businesses across air, land, cybersecurity and space systems. The Economic Times described it as a €22 billion French group and said it has work shares in major weapons programs including Rafale fighter jets.

Caine did not elaborate on negotiations with India’s defense ministry over the purchase of 114 additional Rafale jets, the Economic Times reported. The report said such a purchase would include significant technology transfer to India by manufacturers including Thales, Dassault and Safran.

The company is also focusing on lower-cost products suited to modern warfare, Caine said, including smart rockets and short-range missiles such as Starstreak and the Lightweight Multirole Missile. The interview did not give contract values for those systems or name Indian suppliers under consideration.

Space is another potential area of cooperation. Caine told the newspaper Thales is looking at partnerships with Indian launch companies because he expects a shortage of satellite-launch capacity in 2029, when he said SpaceX rockets will no longer be available to other customers.

“For countries like India, mastering launchers clearly presents an opportunity to be much more in demand for satellite launches because of this gap,” Caine said. “As Thales is involved in satellites, there is quite a natural potential complementarity for us to turn to Indian launch service companies.”

The interview leaves several commercial points unresolved. Caine did not give a target for future Indian procurement, disclose the size of any potential space-launch partnership or say whether talks with Indian launch companies have advanced to formal agreements.

Caine spoke ahead of a visit to India during which he is expected to meet policymakers and customers. The Economic Times did not give dates for the visit or for decisions on the 114 Rafale aircraft talks.

2029 launch capacity

The dated marker is 2029: whether SpaceX rockets are unavailable to other customers, as Caine said, and whether any resulting satellite-launch shortage creates business for Indian launch-service companies. A separate check will be whether Thales turns its stated interest into identifiable Indian launch partnerships by that year.