Thales has introduced a new family of TopStar Galileo core modules aimed at receiver manufacturers that need secure, sovereign and jamming-resilient GNSS for defense and critical-infrastructure applications.
The announcement positions the modules as building blocks for European and allied OEMs that want tighter control over their navigation supply chains while leveraging Galileo’s Open Service (OS) and Public Regulated Service (PRS).
Sovereignty and resilience as design drivers
On the sovereignty side, the Galileo PRS core module is explicitly aimed at EU companies seeking a standardized way to embed PRS into their own receivers, rather than buying complete black-box units. The module’s small footprint (on the order of a few inches square), low weight (around 50 g) and sub-2 W power consumption are intended to make it practical across aircraft, helicopters, drones, missiles and surface platforms.
On the resilience side, the TopStar line builds on work Thales highlighted in 2025, when it reported what it called a world first: a satellite-positioning solution combining real signals from two military constellations—Galileo PRS and GPS M-code—within a single receiver (TopStar M), further hardened by the TopShield anti-jamming front end. The new Galileo core modules can be read as an effort to push that architecture deeper into the supply chain, allowing more integrators to field receivers that fuse multiple secure services and front-end protection.
Target markets: from cockpits to weapons and critical infrastructure
The likely near-term adopters include:
- Avionics and mission-system integrators needing Galileo-capable, PRS-ready PNT for new or upgraded cockpits;
- Defense primes retrofitting existing platforms with more resilient GNSS front ends to cope with contested RF environments;
- Critical-infrastructure vendors (e.g., timing and sync systems) in markets where regulators are pushing for multi-constellation, sovereign PNT options.
Because the modules are meant to be embedded, they also fit into a larger European trend toward modular, common-core electronics that can be reused across programmes while meeting export-control and security-accreditation requirements.
With French accreditation already in place for the PRS security ASIC and decades of operational use behind the broader TopStar family, Thales is positioning these modules as a mature, defense-grade option for OEMs that want Galileo inside their next generation of receivers—without ceding control of the rest of the stack.
