Editor’s Note: The figures in the second to last paragraph that break out military, civil and space sales have been corrected.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
PARIS \u2014 Sofradir sees the US as a large and highly competitive market, but one in which pragmatism rules, said Philippe Bensussan, chairman of the French company, which specializes in military and civil infrared (IR) detectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The US is the largest market and a difficult one,” he said last week. “But if the US needs, they buy. The US is highly pragmatic. We all struggle but there are long-term contracts to be won.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sofradir designs and makes cooled and uncooled IR detectors, used in night-vision goggles, IR cameras and targeting equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the recent French weapons sale to Egypt, Sofradir sensors will be fitted to all the missiles which will arm the Rafale fighter jets, namely Mica, Scalp cruise weapons <\/span>and Armement Air-Sol Modulaire (AASM), a powered smart bomb, Bensussan said.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sofradir EC, based in Fairfield, New Jersey, allows the French parent company to compete in the US with products adapted to meet US requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We have a competitive advantage as a US industrial client can select Sofradir rather than a supplier which is part of a rival American group,” Bensussan said. “But our market<\/span> share in the US market is not growing as fast as expected.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n DRS, Rockwell and Raytheon are the main US competitors, according to said<\/span> a 2011 research note from H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Masson, senior research fellow at think tank Fondation pour la R\u00e9cherche Strat\u00e9gique. The major foreign competitors are AIM in Germany, Selex in Britain and SCD in Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n “IR detection represents a strategic defense capability which has attracted large government spending over several decades both in Europe but also mainly across the Atlantic,” the note said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sofradir is key to MBDA, and the two companies rely on each other in an industrial interdependence of prime contractor and its supply chain, Masson said April 9. The former supplies the sensors that allow the missiles to see and hit their targets, while the latter is the major client for the IR components, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A builder of opto-electronics also allows France to exercise a form of industrial sovereignty as Paris can avoid relying on a foreign supplier for a critical missile component, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n