Mexican Navy first POLA ship passes Sea Acceptance Trials.

In November and December 2019, ARM Reformador, the first of the Mexican Navy’s POLA class vessels, was subjected to the Sea Acceptance Trials. The trials took place off the Mexican west coast. Faced with various surface and air targets, Thales proved convincingly the integration of its systems and their functionalities.

The first of the Mexican Navy’s POLA class vessels, was subjected to the Sea Acceptance Trials. Faced with various surface and air targets, Thales proved convincingly the integration of its systems and their functionalities (Picture source: Thales)

In addition to the regular SAT, Thales also performed a challenging demonstration of its SMART-S Mk2 radar, involving a series of sea skimming and supersonic flights. SMART-S Mk2 performed excellent, to the full satisfaction of the Mexican Navy.

After the successful trials, the project’s next milestone is the commissioning of the ship into active service with the Mexican Navy. This is expected in February 2020.

“Thales signed this contract in 2017 and was challenged to deliver early 2020. Thanks to the great cooperation with Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding and by making full use of our standard product philosophy, we met every requirement. We are looking forward to future projects with the Mexican Navy” said Geert van der Molen, Thales VP Naval.

Thales Mission Suite

The Thales share in ARM Reformador is huge: the Tacticos Combat Management System, the SMART-S Mk2 Air and Surface Surveillance Radar, the STIR 1.2 EO Mk2 Radar and EO Tracking system, the Gatekeeper Electro-optical Ship Security system, and the CAPTAS-2 Passive Variable Depth Sonar.

Furthermore the C-Guard Decoy launcher and RIGEL Radar-Electronic Support Measures and Radar-Electronic Counter Measures systems have been supplied and integrated into Tacticos.

Thales also delivered and integrated a full armament suite including RAM Surface to Air Missile launcher, Harpoon Surface to Surface missile launcher, 57 mm gun, 12,7 mm machine guns, and Mk38 25 mm Machine Gun with dedicated console.

Through this contract, Thales realized a Transfer of Technology to Mexico by having Navy engineers participating in the engineering and system integration activities, as well as in test activities.

Modular construction

ARM Reformador composes of six modules, only two of which have been built in Flushing, the Netherlands. Thales’s sensors have been installed in various modules built both in Mexico and in the Netherlands, which required a tight coordination between all parties. While the sensors on module V were installed in Flushing, the CAPTAS sonar and the weaponry was shipped and installed directly in Mexico.