Aresia
Aircraft weapon carriage, ejector racks, mission pods and live-fire training systems.
Aresia is what happens when several small French aerospace equipment firms are stacked into one group. Rafaut, a family company founded in 1960 and known for carrying and releasing loads under aircraft, bought the AEds group in 2019 and then absorbed Secapem, Lunetech, LACE, Alkan and SECA Automatismes during 2021. The combined business renamed itself Aresia in May 2022. Alkan, founded in 1923 by Robert Alkan, brought the deepest defence pedigree, having built carriage and ejection systems for fighters, helicopters, maritime patrol aircraft, drones and trainers for a century. HLD Europe holds sixty percent of the group alongside Tikehau Capital ACE, Etoile Capital and BNP Paribas Developpement. More than 600 people work in France, equipment is in service in over 65 countries on more than 100 aircraft types, and the stated ambition is a place in the European future combat air system.
The defence catalogue starts with weapon carriage. Pylons hang under wing or fuselage and carry a guided munition, a droppable tank, a multiple adapter or a pod, taking 14 inch or 30 inch stores up to the 2000 pound NATO class. Multiple adapters increase the count, in pyrotechnic or pneumatic form, for stores such as AASM, Mk82, Mk83, GBU-12 and GBU-49. Ejector release units come in heavy duty and light duty ranges, pyrotechnic with NATO cartridges or pneumatic at 350 bar, built to MIL-STD-8591 and MIL-STD-2088B. Release units, hooks and weapon arms round out the family, and the equipment is combat qualified on Rafale, Mirage 2000, Gripen, Jaguar, Alpha Jet, AT-6, Super Tucano, Black Hawk, Cougar, Tiger and C295 among others.
Helicopter equipment is a separate line covering cargo hooks, beams, carriage cradles and gravity releases, where the LACE heritage makes Aresia a European leader in load hooks. Aerial mission systems cover pods, sonobuoy launchers and countermeasure dispensers, flying on the Atlantique 2, CN235, Dash 8 and ATR 72, and on Mirage, C-130, NH90 and Embraer 145 aircraft for customers including Dassault Aviation, Embraer and Airbus Helicopters. Onboard electronics are designed in house. Training solutions come from the Secapem side: the TAXAN towed aerial target, produced in more than 6,000 examples and used by the French air force, the modular MRSAT-50 target, the AFGS acoustic strafing scorer, the LPCB camera-based bomb and rocket scoring system, and MELODI, a location of miss and hit system for infantry marksmanship. Radar reflectors based on Luneberg lenses, external droppable fuel tanks, ground support carts, winches and test benches, aeronautical fasteners, heat treatment and MRO services complete a portfolio that also sells wheels and brakes into civil aviation. Modular design is the sales argument, since almost every item is adapted to a specific aircraft rather than sold off the shelf, and the customer list runs from Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Boeing, Thales and BAE Systems to defence ministries buying direct. Export is where the growth is.
- Aircraft weapon carriage and store release design
- Pyrotechnic and pneumatic ejection systems
- Helicopter cargo hooks, beams and gravity releases
- Mission pods and sonobuoy launchers
- Countermeasure dispenser integration
- Live-fire training targets and scoring systems
- Luneberg lens radar reflectors
- Droppable external fuel tank manufacture
- Ground support and test equipment
- Aeronautical fasteners, heat treatment and MRO
Plug and fly under-wing and under-fuselage pylons carrying stores up to the 2000 pound NATO class.
Lighter carriage pylons for trainers, light combat aircraft and unmanned platforms.
Pyrotechnic or pneumatic adapters that multiply store capacity under a single pylon.
Heavy duty 30 inch and light duty 14 inch ejection units built to MIL-STD-8591 and MIL-STD-2088B.
Electromechanical release devices for helicopters, light combat aircraft, patrol aircraft and drones.
Fuselage and wing hook assemblies with matching pylon interfaces for combat aircraft.
Armament arms for helicopter and light aircraft store carriage.
Load carriage hooks where the LACE heritage makes the group a European leader.
Structural beams and equipped cradles for rotary-wing external load and armament fits.
Pod structures carrying sensors, emitters, receivers, optronics or countermeasure modules.
Vertical and horizontal, single and multiple buoy launchers for maritime patrol platforms.
Custom chaff and flare dispensing solutions integrated for major airframers.
Towed aerial gunnery target produced in more than 6,000 examples with acoustic scoring.
Light modular towed aerial target for surface-to-air and air-to-air gunnery and missile training.
Acoustic air-to-ground strafing scoring system deployable in under ten minutes.
Camera-based scoring system for air-to-ground bomb and rocket training, day or night.
Location of miss and hit system combining acoustic and video sensors for infantry marksmanship.
Passive and active radar reflectors sold for defence and civil use under the Lunetech brand.
Jettisonable fuel tanks descended from the Chausson works heritage inside AEds.
Custom embedded electronic systems and harnesses for military programmes.
Civil aviation braking pistons and wheel components.
Carts, winches and test benches for arming, handling and checkout on the flight line.
Fasteners, distribution and sealing products supplied to airframers and equipment makers.
Metallurgical heat treatment services for aerospace parts.
Maintenance, repair and in-service support of carriage, release and training equipment.
Programs & Platforms
Villeneuve-la-Garenne, France
Ownership
PE-backed