In early April, less than two weeks after Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine, a video was posted on Twitter showing a soldier downing a Russian drone with a shoulder-held rocket launcher.
Last Tuesday Moscow added three DUP MPs and six senior staff members of an international defence and aerospace contractor with a major presence here to a sanctions list
The connection? The weapon in the Twitter footage was a lightweight multirole missile (LNM) designed and built by Thales Group at the firm’s factory in Belfast.
The three MPs — Gavin Robinson, Gregory Campbell and Sammy Wilson — were accused of being “associated with the defence complex”.
Thales Group has two sites here — its factory in the east of the city and an operation in Crossgar, where missiles are tested.
The French company took over what was Shorts Missile Systems in 2001 and supplies a range of weapons to the Ministry of Defence and others.
It employs around 650 locally, with the Belfast factory designing and manufacturing two weapons which have been used in Ukraine — the LNM and the STARStreak missile.
It also assembles Saab’s next generation light anti-tank weapon (NLAW).
STARStreak has been used to shoot down Russian helicopters in the fighting.
A source close to the company said the MoD supplied the arms to Ukraine from existing stocks when Russia invaded, and it is understood Thales has the capacity to provide the MoD with more if necessary.
Starstreak is a British short-range man-portable air-defence system manufactured by Thales Air Defence, in Belfast.
Thales would not comment on the news CEO and chairman Alexander Cresswell, chief operating officer Christopher Shaw, and vice presidents Paul Gosling, Ewen McCrorie, Suzanne Stratton and Lynne Watson, had been placed on Russia’s sanctions list, or if security for them had been increased.
However, one insider said threats are not unheard of in the defence sector, but staff will be going about “business as usual”.
Formerly known as Thomson-CSF until a rebrand in 2000, Thales has had a long local connection dating back to 1936, working with Shorts for years before taking over its missile systems arm at the turn of the millennium.
One source said the work of the engineers in Belfast is quite literally rocket science, and the highly specialised nature of their job is the reason Thales has invested millions in Belfast.
While its workforce is dwarfed by other companies here like Almac and Spirit AeroSystems, one former employee told the Belfast Telegraph its significance is in the know-how of the business.
“As a place for crucial research and development, innovation and technical skills, it’s a very important part of the cog,” he explained.
“Yes, you have much more employment at other companies, but in terms of technology, capability in the business, they’ve always been able to reinvent themselves and stay ahead of the curve.
“They’ve worked very hard to build global relations and be a key, albeit small, part of the Thales infrastructure as a global business.
“For a French multinational to continue to grow their facility in Belfast is kudos to David Beattie, who was previously in charge, and then its current managing director Philip McBride and the team there at the moment.”
The latest accounts for Thales UK show a revenue of £935.2m in 2020, with an operating loss of £42.5m.
This is compared with a revenue in 2019 of £1.02bn and an operating profit of £84.3m.
The firm put the loss in 2020 down to the impact of the pandemic.
Thales has said it contributes £35m a year to local GDP.
Across the UK, the company employs 4,859 — 3,557 in production, 959 in distribution, 149 in sales and 194 in administration.
In 2020 Thales’ UK wage bill, including pension contributions and other payments, was just over £355m.
As you’d expect of a missiles manufacturer, Thales is no stranger to controversy.
Protesters picketed the Belfast factory in March over its involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
In the early 2000s protests over the sale of weapons for the war in Iraq were frequent.
Although it has now attracted the ire of the Kremlin, in 2003 President Putin actually visited Thales’ operation in Bordeaux.
The former worker said the senior staff sanctioned by Moscow won’t be too perturbed by events, nor will the rest of the firm.
He added: “They’re really thick-skinned, they will not be bothered by this at all. They never court publicity.
“As an organisation, they just get on with the job and work very hard and very diligently to continue the business and work with national governments across the world.
“They have relationships in the Far East and India, and between the Belfast and Crossgar facilities they work very hard.
“Every so often they’ll come into the spotlight, as they did in 2001 around the Iraq invasion, and now it’s happened again.
“But the interest will wane, and they’ll just keep working regardless.”
He added he could “only speak positively” of the culture of the company as far as employees were concerned.
“It was absolutely fantastic to work there due to how the business operates,” he said.
“It’s a huge, big open plan office, with everyone from Philip McBride through to the newest administrator or trainee sitting there.
“At the back of the building you have the engineering resource.
“In between you have the manufacturing.
“I found it a very positive environment to work within.”
He also has experience of supplying the business.
“I found them a good company to work for as a supplier, and there’s still a number of other local engineering companies in their supply chain,” he added.
The company has received significant support from Invest NI down the years.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the factory earlier this year and was photographed posing with some of the weapons.
In April 1989 Noel Little, father of Lagan Valley DUP MLA Emma Little-Pengelly, was arrested with two other men in Paris over a terror plot to exchange stolen missile technology from Shorts for South African guns.
The weapons were destined for the UVF, UDA and Ulster Resistance.
After two years on remand the three were convicted.
Little received a three-year suspended sentence and was fined 50,000 francs.
Decades on, Thales’ fascinating history at the intersection between local industry and global affairs continues.
