It has been announced that Chelton Ltd., a Cobham group company, has acquired 100 percent of the shares in Thales Antennas.


The acquisition follows a restructuring by Thales whereby the antenna operations will be concentrated at the Southampton site in the UK, which Chelton has now taken over.

The company will now trade under its previous name of Racal Antennas Ltd. and will target growth in its traditional defence marketplace as well as retaining activities in the telecommunications infrastructure market.

Alongside Chelton's existing subsidiary, European Antennas Ltd., Racal Antennas has a long legacy of supplying land and vehicular communications antennas and masts to the British and overseas armies, and is the selected supplier of such equipment to General Dynamics UK for the UK's Bowman radio programme.

The acquisition continues Chelton's recent expansion into Army communications systems following the acquisition last year of BAE Systems' land vehicular intercom business, now operating as Chelton Defence Communications.