France’s Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) has awarded Airbus, through its subsidiary Airbus Cybersecurity SAS, a 25-year PARACOM contract to provide advanced cybersecurity gateways for the networks of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and Veterans. Awarded following a competitive tender process, the contract covers the end-to-end design, development, production and long-term operational maintenance of the gateways.
The PARACOM gateways will become a key component of the ministry’s cybersecurity infrastructure, enabling secure and filtered data exchanges between networks and information systems with different classification or sensitivity levels. The system will be approved and certified to support various exchanges between classified and unclassified environments.
François Lombard, Head of Connected Intelligence at Airbus Defence and Space, said: “This gateway strengthens the digital protection that the French Armed Forces rely on to carry out their missions. We have been providing gateway solutions to the French land forces since 2013. The high level of expertise of our cybersecurity teams in multi-level data-sharing solutions strengthens our position as one of the leading cybersecurity players in France.”
Designed for a high degree of versatility, the gateways can be installed at Ministry of the Armed Forces and Veterans facilities or deployed in operational areas. Different versions will be available, including systems integrated into data centre racks and standalone units for use in command centres.
The gateways are also designed for use in more constrained tactical environments, including surface vessels, submarines, aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, armoured vehicles and other ground vehicles. As military operations become increasingly digitalised and associated threats grow, the ability to securely filter data flows has become an important priority for armed forces.
