Thales Air Defence of Northern Ireland (once Shorts Missile Systems) has won a $72 million contract from the French branch of Thales Air Defense to manufacture a new version of the VT1 missile for use with the Crotale New Generation air defense system. The VT1 was originally built by Thomson-CSF (which is now the French branch of Thales Air Defense). The VT1 missile has a speed of Mach-3.6 and has a range of 11km.--Stephen V Cole
