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Tag: Jean-Yves Courtois

  • Safran officially acquires Orolia for PNT solutions

    Safran officially acquires Orolia for PNT solutions

    After a negotiation process that began in December 2021, Orolia officially joined Safran Electronics & Defense on July 8.

    Orolia employs more than 435 people in Europe and North America and has revenues of about €100 million. Its solutions include atomic clocks, time servers, simulation and resilience equipment for GNSS signals, and emergency locator beacons for commercial aviation and military applications.

    These products and solutions will complement Safran Electronics & Defense’s activities as it meets the challenges of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) in contested and vulnerable environments, Safran said.

    In most situations, GNSS receivers are the reference providers of time and position data. Still, they need to be secured by combining them with accurate, high-integrity autonomous time or inertial references.

    Through this partnership with Orolia, Safran Electronics & Defense, will offer a comprehensive set of resilient PNT architectures and equipment to meet the challenges of integrity and robustness for the aviation, defense, space, transportation, new mobility and critical infrastructure markets.

    “Orolia could not imagine a better fit than with Safran to secure its growth and leverage its PNT leadership positions,” said Jean-Yves Courtois, CEO of Orolia. “Thanks to the addition of best-in-class timing and inertial technologies, premier access to the largest defense and aerospace markets, and a proven track record in government program capture and execution, Safran and Orolia now have all the cards in hand to establish themselves as the resilient PNT leader.”

    Martin Sion, CEO of Safran Electronics & Defense, said: “The acquisition of Orolia makes Safran one of the few companies with the full complement of PNT technologies, bringing together Orolia’s precise time referencing and Safran Electronics & Defense’s proven inertial navigation solutions. Our shared ambition is to become the world leader in resilient PNT for all conventional and strategic applications.”

  • Safran to acquire resilient PNT company Orolia

    Safran to acquire resilient PNT company Orolia

    Orolia logo

    Safran has entered into exclusive discussions to acquire Orolia from Eurazeo alongside the founders and management. Orolia is a world leader in resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions that improve the reliability, performance and safety of critical civilian, military and space operations, including in harsh or altered GNSS environments.

    Safran is an international high-technology group, operating in the aviation (propulsion, equipment and interiors), defense and space markets. Headquartered in Paris, France, Safran has a global presence, with 76,000 employees and sales of 16.5 billion euros in 2020.

    Orolia has a broad portfolio of technologies across the resilient PNT value-chain with full system capabilities, and is a provider of PNT equipment, simulation and test solutions. Orolia is also providing emergency locator beacons for commercial aviation and military applications.

    The acquisition “represents a unique opportunity for Safran and Orolia to extend their resilient PNT solutions, through their remarkable complementarities,” Safran stated in a press release. “With this addition, Safran will be able to build a world-leading position in all aspects of PNT, inertial navigation, time and GNSS receivers and simulators, covering aerospace, governmental and high integrity applications.”

    Safran intends to accelerate the development of Orolia under the leadership of CEO Jean-Yves Courtois, and in full collaboration with its teams. “The combination of Orolia and Safran will create a PNT world leader with capabilities that will be unsurpassed in depth and breadth,” Courtois said. “Our perfect complementarity in terms of technology expertise, market presence and geographic footprint will allow us to push further resilient PNT to the next level and to offer our government, aerospace and commercial customers the most advanced solutions they need for their critical operations. Orolia will contribute especially through its world-leading positions in timing, GNSS simulation and emergency location technologies, and through its strong presence in the U.S. market. We are looking forward to working with our new Safran colleagues to advance our common vision.”

    Orolia is expected to generate revenues of more than EUR 100 million in 2021 and has approximately 435 employees with facilities in France, the United States, Switzerland, Spain and Canada.

    The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to the usual regulatory approvals. Orolia will be consolidated within Safran’s Equipment & Defense division upon closing, expected around mid-2022.

  • Orolia, Seven Solutions partner for resilient PNT solutions

    Orolia, Seven Solutions partner for resilient PNT solutions

    Logos: Orolia, Seven Solutions

    Orolia and Seven Solutions have partnered to deliver resilient, accurate, and stable time and frequency for global military, commercial and critical infrastructure applications.

    According to the companies, the partnership will address the ultra-precise, resilient timing and frequency requirements of industries such as defense, aerospace, data centers, telecom, financial services, smart grids and other critical infrastructure.

    Through the partnership, Orolia will offer a modular approach to resilient PNT, which includes a combination of GNSS signals protected with interference detection and mitigation technology, together with low Earth orbit secure alternative signals. The Orolia-Seven Solutions partnership also will offer terrestrial sub-nanosecond time distribution from distant and potentially redundant locations.

    “This partnership is a key example of Orolia’s commitment to combining best-in-class technologies into more robust resilient PNT solutions for our customers,” said Orolia CEO Jean-Yves Courtois. “Those who require the most accurate, extremely precise time and frequency technology will now also benefit from an unprecedented level of resilience to protect critical PNT data sources, for more confidence and peace of mind.”

    This new partnership between Seven Solutions and Orolia will facilitate global operations and naturally integrate with reliable time sources. Seven Solutions will focus on bringing the best-in-class time and frequency distribution, the companies said.

  • Orolia introduces SecureFind wearable combat search-and-rescue beacon

    Orolia introduces SecureFind wearable combat search-and-rescue beacon

    U.S. Army photo by Spc. Javon Spence
    U.S. Army photo by Spc. Javon Spence

    Orolia has introduced its latest military technology innovation, the SecureFind Combat Rescue Beacon, at the 2018 AUSA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

    In addition to protecting the most critical assets and leaving no one behind, combat search and rescue (CSAR) technology can significantly enhance military operations by avoiding the loss of sensitive information and technology, avoiding hostage situations and helping to prevent conflict escalation.

    SecureFind is based on Orolia’s search-and-rescue technology suite, selected by military forces for CSAR missions. The wearable base unit includes an open channel search-and-rescue solution, for military use in training or test mode. It can also be configured with a customer-defined, secure channel solution for covert operations.

    The versatile CSAR solution operates with a silent, push-button functionality that does not require voice activation. SecureFind enables military forces to precisely and safely execute CSAR missions, with optional Assured PNT (positioning, navigation and timing) technology that prevents GPS signal interference, spoofing and jamming, the company said.

    “There is no greater need for urgency, stealth and precision than when military personnel are isolated in rugged environments or behind enemy lines,” said Paul Zweers, Orolia’s vice president of defense programs.

    “Software-defined, wearable communications technology is now more important than ever on today’s air, land, sea and cyber battlefields,” added Orolia CEO Jean-Yves Courtois. “CSAR missions are just the beginning of potential uses for this resilient military technology, which can ensure reliable positioning, navigation and timing data in any operating environment. Orolia’s solutions are tailored to support today’s soldiers and engineered with a view toward the future of global military networks.”

    According to Orolia, the standard SecureFind solution is available at a price point that could enable thousands of warfighters to benefit from the new battlefield technology. More advanced functionality is also available, such as the ability to change signals on-the-go for additional security, to detect and mitigate GPS jamming and spoofing, and to generate important strategic information such as virtual battlefield maps of jamming and spoofing activity.

    Orolia offers a cost-effective, modular approach to assured PNT, with a flexible, open architecture that integrates easily with legacy systems. This layered platform meets critical technology requirements without over-engineering a solution that is complex, expensive and difficult to maintain.

    Additional SecureFind product information is available at the AUSA Annual Meeting, Orolia booth #8051.

  • Orolia to supply clocks for 12 more Galileo satellites

    Orolia to supply clocks for 12 more Galileo satellites

    Orolia’s atomic clock solutions have been selected for the Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) under contracts totaling 26 million euros for an additional 12 Galileo satellites.

    This latest initiative builds on Orolia’s long-standing role in providing precise timing technology for satellite programs, including Galileo.

    Each satellite will carry two rubidium atomic clocks and two passive hydrogen masers, considered the most stable clock in the world. Under these contracts, Orolia will supply its Spectratime Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard and its passive hydrogen masers physics package.

    Orolia's Space Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard. (Photo: Orolia)
    Orolia’s Space Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard. (Photo: Orolia)

    “We’re honored to continue supporting the European Commission with precise timing for Galileo,” said Orolia CEO Jean-Yves Courtois. “These new contracts further emphasize Orolia’s position as the world’s leading provider of resilient positioning, timing and navigation (PNT) solutions.”

    In addition to serving as Europe’s independent PNT source, Galileo can also serve as a secondary signal source for systems such as GPS, GLONASS or BeiDou in the event of service disruption. Galileo’s quadruple clock redundancy designed into each satellite ensures that even if a failure occurs, overall system performance will not be compromised.

    More than 150 Orolia Spectratime atomic clocks are flying to support Galileo, IRNSS, BeiDou, GAIA and other missions, some for more than 10 years. Orolia provides the expertise necessary to design solutions for highly reliable space applications.

    Orolia is a designer and manufacturer of a full range of high-performance, low-cost GNSS synchronized crystal solutions, rubidium and maser sources, smart integrated GNSS reference clocks, rugged PNT devices, GNSS simulation and clock testing systems. Orolia’s PNT solutions support a variety of critical applications including defense, government, space, maritime, enterprise networks, aviation and telecommunications.