Hello and welcome to this TV set from Euronaval since yesterday and until the end of the show on Thursday. We are receiving the most eminent personalities of the naval world, whether from the armed forces, state institutions, or industry leaders. Today I have the honor of receiving Patrice Caine, Chairman and CEO of Thales. Welcome again. Thank you. Thales is a well-known company, but still, tell us a few words to situate it, especially in today's context.
With great pleasure. First of all, good morning, and I am delighted to be with you this morning. Thales is first and foremost defense. We are at Euronaval, so to each his due. We do about 10 billion in defense, we must be among the top 10 defense groups in the world when you look at the rankings by size. But we don't only do defense, we also do aeronautics, one of the largest equipment manufacturers in the world in aeronautics. We also do space, one of the great leaders in space in Europe and on the international scene. And our last pillar is everything related to cybersecurity and digital identity, with a cyber hub that we have built over the last ten years, which does about more than 2 billion, 2.3 billion, so that constitutes our large activity of the group. That's the global panorama.
So before going into more detail about your innovations and what you are presenting at your stand, which is at the entrance of the show, stand I14, what interpretation do you make of the international situation and how does it change the activity and the demands of your clients?
Ah, it's true that the international situation is quite delicate, let's say. Geopolitics has made a big comeback, if I may say so, for a few years now, and notably the conflicts, open conflicts, even high-intensity as we say, with what is happening in Ukraine, but not only in Ukraine, the tensions in the Middle East region, but also in the Asia-Pacific, which has led almost all governments to reinvest, for those who had disinvested a bit, to reinvest heavily in defense. Some countries never let up, I think for example of the Middle East, you have countries that have constantly invested in defense spending for at least 20-30 years. Europe had rather eased off since the fall of the Berlin Wall, to give a historical date. Well, there has been a real turnaround. France was a bit earlier, rather 2014-2015 with the Bataclan attacks, where there was a realization that security was not something guaranteed forever and that we need to reinvest in the field of security and defense. For European countries, it was rather the war in Ukraine in 2022 that was a kind of painful awakening, if I may say so, that defense and security must be among the top priorities of these governments. And it's true that since the last Euronaval show, things have not improved in terms of geopolitical tension, and indeed governments are investing more and more in their security and defense.
And so what do you have to offer exactly? What are you highlighting on your stand to meet these expectations?
First of all, Euronaval is an opportunity to see all our major clients who come to see us, major international clients, of course the major French client, but major international clients, to advance the files, advance the subjects. It is first of all for me an opportunity for meetings. Of course, it is also an opportunity to show our latest innovations, our latest products, our latest equipment and systems. Among the innovations, we like to talk about technology at Thales, it's something that characterizes us well. We like to handle both the digital world, where I think we have invested a lot, so it's true we talk a lot about artificial intelligence. We have accelerated in this area since the beginning of the year with a hub of more than 600 experts at the group level, divided into three pillars: the people who really look at AI research, especially trustworthy AI for critical activities for safety of operation; the part applied to decision support systems; and then AI in sensors, in captors, which is a great domain of Thales: sonars, radars, electronic warfare equipment. So these are indeed beautiful innovations that we show on our stand. And also physics, physical sciences, because our sensors are also physical sciences. And we show, for example, a totally new material, if I may say so, called superhydrophobic. That means that if you put water on it, the water splashes, bounces off. And this is very important especially for navies because a lot of equipment uses small windows for typically optronic equipment, cameras, but at sea there can be salt fog, rain, spray, and keeping the optics always clean and clear is a real challenge. A few years ago, there were still windshield wipers, which were not very technological, but it was the best there was. With these new generation materials, frankly, we are going to take a very important step for the operational forces with optics that are always clear because the water bounces off, does not attach.
There are other areas where you are also ahead, at least in the news, that is mine warfare for example, and you were already talking two years ago about quantum applications. Can you tell us a little more?
