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The French "beat" the Americans, winning the auction for the installation of a radar in Albania. The Sazan radar is not working?!

2025-06-21 21:20:56Investigim SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Photo montage: Signing of the contract between the Albanian and French sides

A French company has won the auction for the installation of a radar in Albania. The giants of "Thales" have defeated the Americans of "Lockheed Martin", who 5 years ago won about 20 million euros to install a radar in the territory of Albania. It seems that diplomatic changes and frequent visits of French governors to Albania, or of Albanian governors to France, have brought about this change of course.

On June 20, 2025, the Minister of Defense of Albania, Pirro Vengu, was in France, at the headquarters of the company "Thales". He initially met his French counterpart and then, senior representatives of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the company's managers signed the agreement.

But, from an observation by VoxNews, it has resulted that the Albanian Ministry of Defense did not open auctions or tenders for the installation of a radar, while the only procedure is the one worth about 200 thousand euros to purchase equipment. It seems that the contract was kept secret until it was signed, while the invoice for how much the purchase of a radar from Vengu will cost has not yet been released.

 

The French "beat" the Americans, winning the auction for the
Thales company announcement for the deployment of radar in Albania

 

On June 20, 2025, the French company "Thales" issued a statement, stating that it "supports the sovereignty of airspace in Albania with the Ground Master 400 Alpha surveillance radar."

According to her, the contract was signed at the Paris Air Show, between French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Albanian Minister Pirro Vengu.

“Thales has won a contract to supply a Ground Master 400 Alpha (GM400α) radar, with delivery within 14 months, as part of an air surveillance modernization program. Thales has fulfilled the strategic requirement to supply a Ground Master surveillance radar in record time. The radar plays an active role in air surveillance,” the company wrote.

It further explains that with its fully digital architecture, it tracks aerial threats at a range of up to 515 km, with superior detection of low-altitude targets. To date, more than 270 Ground Master air surveillance radars have been sold worldwide.

“We are proud to support Albania with the rapid delivery of the combat-proven Ground Master 400 Alpha,” said Eric Huber, Vice President of Thales Surface Radars. “With our increased manufacturing capacity and support from our partner ecosystem, we are able to have rapid turnaround times in relation to urgent operational requirements. The Ground Master 400 Alpha offers a reliable, high-performance and highly mobile capability to meet Albania’s air surveillance and sovereignty needs,” he continued.

 

The French "beat" the Americans, winning the auction for the
Signing of the contract between the Albanian and French parties

 

Thales writes that it is a global leader in advanced technologies for the defense sector. The group invests more than 4 billion euros per year in Research and Development in key areas, particularly for critical environments, such as Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum technologies and cloud. Thales has more than 83,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2024, the group generated sales of 20.6 billion euros.

Meanwhile, in 2020, the Albanian government purchased a $22 million (€19 million) long-range radar system from US-based defense equipment provider Lockheed Martin. The system, located on the northern Mida mountain, became operational in November 2020.

The French "beat" the Americans, winning the auction for the

The control of Albanian airspace has been a topic of debate and scandal in the past. The deliberate or unintentional disruption of radars has paved the way for drug trafficking, while the government has found it impossible to control it.

Meanwhile, the purchase of a radar by the French was done secretly and directly, bypassing the relevant institutions. VoxNews has asked the Public Procurement Agency to see whether or not there was a tender or auction for the acquisition of a radar.

Our editorial team found only one announcement, from the Ministry of Defense, opened in recent months, May and June. It is about "purchase of equipment/parts for the technical readiness of the radar at PRT-17 Sazan". It is about spare parts and equipment for radar. The value of the tender is 19,551,854, or if we convert it into euros, it goes to about 200 thousand euros.

Given the object of the tender, "for placing in technical readiness", it seems that the Sazan radar does not work. And if such a thing is true, this is a new scandal of the Ministry of Defense, since in the past there have been many debates about whether it works or not. The radar in that part controls the Otranto Channel and the maritime surface in Albania. Often, from that channel or from the sea, there have been many suspicious movements of criminal groups that send narcotics or clandestine substances to Italy.

And if it doesn't work, who is responsible?!

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The French "beat" the Americans, winning the auction for the

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