Portuguese Optimal Group to supply navy with ballistic middle and drone defence system

The Optimal Group has won the Portuguese Navy’s competition to install ballistic protection on the NRP Scorpio inspection boat, the first step towards the expansion of the Portuguese company’s composite ballistic protection solution in the Defence sector.

After producing the drone fuselage, the group has plans to offer a turnkey product and also, in the “embryonic” phase, a project for an anti-aircraft defense system. With around 100 workers and five production units, Optimal Group had revenues of 15 million last year according to an exclusive by ECO online.

The project for the Portuguese Navy started last year, after winning a competition for ballistic protections for NRP Escorpião’s Browning machine guns.

Both Shamrock and BeyondComposite had also competed for the tender — for an investment of €29,334.59, of which €23,849.26 correspond to the value of the supply — and was won by Optimal Structural Solutions, a group company, according to information published on Portal Base.

“We managed to arrive at a solution that had traction in the market, so much so that we were the first Portuguese company to win a competition with the Portuguese Navy, in terms of ballistic production”, highlights Guilherme Bastos, commercial manager at Optimal Group.

The group, which produces composite parts for sectors ranging from automobiles to aerospace, has been developing activity in the Defence sector for several years, and sees this contract with the Portuguese Navy as a potential booster for this business segment.

After the application of the ballistic protection panels on NRP Escorpião, the next step could be applying the solution “to the remaining ships in the class, or even going to ships of higher and even lower classes”, admits João Carvalho. “It is a contract that allows us to demonstrate that [the solution] is in use, already on the market and has brought us considerable relevance at an international level”, adds the person responsible for the innovation and defense area at Optimal Group.

“This collaboration with the Navy is very well regarded — collaboration in the broadest sense of the word, because it is still a public contract —, it has allowed us to demonstrate that we have the capacity to research, develop, integrate, operationalise the entire chain and even put it into operation”, he highlights.

“At the moment, we are already installing [ballistic protection] on a Portuguese Navy ship, under a commercial contract, and we are discussing several proposals, both nationally and at the European level,” he emphasizes. “In the coming weeks we will be installing” the panels on the patrol boat.

Source: Eco Online; Credits: Portuguese Navy (RR)