Australia opens a towed array sonar factory in Western Sydney for Hunter frigates and Collins submarines

Australia's Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy, has opened a new sonar manufacturing and sustainment facility at Thales Australia's site in Rydalmere, Western Sydney. Thales and the specialist outlet Defence Connect reported the opening on 26 October. The company says the hall will design, build, integrate and maintain towed array sonar systems for submarines, surface warships and uncrewed maritime vessels.

Thales said the facility was paid for jointly by Thales Australia and the Commonwealth of Australia, and described it as a multimillion-dollar investment. Neither the company nor the minister gave a figure or said how the cost was split. The production hall is 100 metres long and sits inside the company's existing Acoustics Centre of Excellence at Rydalmere.

According to Thales, the new hall is a central part of the domestic supply chain for the Thales towed array sonar that will be fitted to the Royal Australian Navy's Hunter class frigates. Defence Connect reported that the facility will deliver the Hunter programme's towed arrays and will also support the sonar system used on the navy's Collins class submarines.

The Department of Defence describes the Hunter class as a multi-billion-dollar programme. It says Project SEA 5000 Phase 1 will deliver six frigates optimised for anti-submarine warfare, based on the British Type 26 design and built by BAE Systems Maritime Australia at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia. Defence lists steel cutting on the first ship in June 2024 and forecasts the second ship's steel cut for 2026 and the third for 2028. Thales Australia is one of the named suppliers, alongside BAE Systems Maritime Australia, Saab Australia, Lockheed Martin Australia and CEA Australia.

Thales said its Rydalmere site has supplied sonar technology to the Australian navy for more than three decades, including for the Collins class boats. Defence Connect reported that this work builds on more than 35 years of collaboration between the company, the navy and Australian defence science organisations.

The company said the new hall gives Australia end-to-end capacity to make the next generation of towed arrays for both submarines and surface combatants, as well as thin-line arrays for uncrewed vessels. Those thin-line arrays feed Thales's BlueSentry system, which pairs fibre-optic towed sonar with uncrewed boats for autonomous surveillance. Thales said the arrays will be offered to export customers as well as to the Australian Defence Force.

Thales also said the site will allow acoustic systems to be repaired and maintained in Australia rather than sent abroad. It argued that cutting long offshore maintenance periods would keep the sensors available for longer and support Australian intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance work at sea.

The company expects the facility to create dozens of direct engineering and advanced manufacturing jobs in Western Sydney over the coming years, plus work for its suppliers. Conroy said the co-invested facility would strengthen national security and create a domestic centre of excellence for acoustic systems that would serve Australian Defence and export markets for decades. Thales Australia and New Zealand chief executive Jeff Connolly said the undersea warfare capabilities would be built and sustained at home.

Neither Thales nor the minister said when the first production arrays for the Hunter class would leave the new hall, or how many arrays the facility is designed to produce each year. Defence Connect's report drew on the same company and ministerial statements, so the details have not yet been confirmed by an independent inspection or a separate Defence announcement.