The French Defence Procurement Agency has awarded an Airbus Defence and Space-led consortium a contract to develop and maintain the third stage of France’s IP Network of the Naval Force, also known as RIFAN.
The contract, potentially worth up to $504 million over 10 years, covers incremental upgrades to the RIFAN system between 2026 and 2030 and deployment to over 80 French naval vessels scheduled between 2028 and 2032. The ships receiving the RIFAN 3 system include aircraft carriers, frigates, submarines and support ships.
According to Airbus, RIFAN 3 aims to significantly enhance inter-ship connectivity, enabling collaborative combat capabilities through new high-speed, low-latency communication technologies deployed on frontline vessels. The upgraded network will also be more resilient and able to quickly adapt to changing conditions and available communication links through rapid reconfiguration mechanisms.
“With RIFAN 3, we are preparing for the next stage, that of collaborative naval combat, networked combat of all assets and platforms involved in naval operations,” said Eric Even, head of Airbus’ space digital unit, stressing the company’s 15-year experience with developing communication systems for the French Navy.
The RIFAN 2 system, the predecessor to this latest upgrade, offers the French Navy a secure broadband network for exchanging classified and unclassified data between ships and onshore command centers. In 2019, the French procurement agency awarded the RIFAN 2.1 contract, worth up to $157.5 million over eight years, to a consortium comprising Airbus, Naval Group and Rohde & Schwarz to maintain the RIFAN 2 network, integrate new frigates and replenishment tankers, address hardware/software obsolescence and enhance cybersecurity.