Pascale Sourisse on why strategic autonomy is more critical now than ever

In a world where peace can no longer be taken for granted, Sourisse, who heads a global defence major, tells Veenu Sandhu why strategic autonomy is more critical now than ever

A day after the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, just shortly before American President Donald Trump’s deadline to wipe out an entire civilisation was set to expire, I meet Pascale Sourisse in a quiet corner of The Oberoi in New Delhi. “Will it hold?” I ask her of the ceasefire without a preamble. Her reply is measured but unambiguous: “The world is watching, but not with certainty.” 

“Until there is a firm agreement between the US and Iran, it is difficult to say anything is truly stable,” says Sourisse, who leads international operations at the Thales Group, a global major that supplies advanced technologies for defence, aerospace and cybersecurity to 68 countries, including India. This tech ranges from radars and combat aircraft electronics to air traffic management and digital identity systems, covering both military and civilian needs. 

“It is a terrible situation for the populations involved,” she says of the uncertainty West Asia is dealing with. But then, it’s not the only region that’s fragile anymore. From Europe, specifically Ukraine, to the Indo-Pacific, the old assumption of peace as a given has eroded, she says. Instability is no longer an anomaly, or an episodic phenomenon. “Countries,” she adds, “are no longer taking peace for granted, and are increasingly focusing on defence sovereignty and strategic autonomy.” 

This is evidently redrawing the contours of the global defence business, making companies like Thales all the more important. 

We are not at any of The Oberoi’s buzzy restaurants — not at its all-day diner, 360°; nor Baoshuan, its Chinese rooftop restaurant, which offers a great view of the city; or even at Dhilli, which celebrates the national capital’s culinary delicacies. Instead, Sourisse has chosen the Business Centre, a no-frills room occupied mostly by a round table, which is both comfortable for a meal and conducive to conversation. 

Lunch begins without ceremony. We skip the exercise of poring over the menu since the meal has been preordered. On earlier occasions, I have mostly had coffee and sandwiches in this room, so I am pleasantly surprised when a plate of quinoa and avocado salad arrives, along with the main course: Roast chicken with stir-fried vegetables — beans, baby potatoes, and carrots — served with a light gravy. 

I start on the salad, which is dotted with pomegranate seeds, goji berries and flaxseed, lightly dressed with citrus. It is fresh, flavourful, and deceptively filling. Sourisse bypasses it entirely and moves straight to the main course. The gravy boat remains untouched. 

After a few bites, we go back to business. Roughly half of Thales’s revenues, she tells me, come from defence. The rest is split between aerospace, space and digital technologies, including cybersecurity and identity solutions. But the thread that ties them all together is the idea of “mission-critical systems” — those where failure is not an option. Telecommunication and civil aviation, for instance. 

“Whether in defence, aeronautics, or digital identity, we are dealing with systems where safety and security are essential,” Sourisse says. “That defines how we design, how we innovate.” 

Have the recent conflicts changed what countries want of Thales, I ask, putting the quinoa salad away and turning my attention to the roast chicken. 

The world, she explains, is demanding more of these systems, but it is demanding them differently. Governments are no longer satisfied with off-the-shelf imports. They want technology transfer, local manufacturing, and domestic capability building. In other words, sovereignty embedded in supply chains. 

“This has been a long-term trend, but it is much more pronounced now,” she says. 

For a company like Thales, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. It must replicate capabilities across geographies, build local partnerships, and invest in talent pools far from Paris, where it is headquartered and where Sourisse is based. While it has already been doing so, there is greater expectation of integration into national ecosystems, she says. 

This is true for India, with its push for self-reliance, as also for other countries, she says. 

Thales’s relationship with India goes back to 1953, when it first supplied radars. Even then, localisation was not optional, Sourisse says. Partnerships were forged early, especially with Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), laying the foundation for a decades-long collaboration. It has also been working closely with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) for over 50 years. More recently, it has partnered with the Chennai-headquartered Garuda Aerospace, a drone tech startup backed by cricketer MS Dhoni. There are other tie-ups, too, with both public and private companies, including for night vision devices. 

As India becomes the centre of the conversation, more food begins to appear on the table. A plate of ravioli is set down, followed by quesadillas. Sourisse samples both as she speaks. I slow down, already feeling the weight of the earlier salad. 

What has changed over these years, Sourisse says, is the scale and sophistication of the systems. “The level of industrial maturity has changed radically,” she says. “India is now able to compete with the best globally, purely on merit.” 

In India, Thales employs around 2,400 people, three-quarters of them engineers. While its key centre is in Noida, it also has an engineering centre in Bengaluru, besides operational offices in Gurugram and Mumbai, among other cities. 

Sourisse’s own first interaction with India dates back to the 1980s, when she was in telecom, helping set up manufacturing units as part of technology transfer agreements.  “In that sense, what is now called ‘Make in India’ has always been part of India’s approach,” she says. 

The ravioli has by now disappeared from our plates and melted into our mouths. It has a leafy, green filling, but I can’t quite tell what it is. I make a mental note to ask about it later, but forget to. 

Sourisse, meanwhile, is telling me how defence remains Thales’s largest business in India, with combat aviation, particularly the Dassault Rafale programme, playing a central role. As a key partner to Dassault Rafale, Thales supplies critical systems that go into the aircraft, from avionics to sensors. But modern warfare, she points out, is no longer defined by platforms alone.   “It is becoming far more digital. You will see more autonomy, more unmanned systems (the kind we saw during last year’s India-Pakistan conflict), and more data-driven operations.” 

At the heart of this shift lies cybersecurity. 

“Everything is becoming digital, which means everything must be secured,” she says. “Any system can be hacked, with a wide range of consequences” — from data theft to far more dangerous scenarios. “If safety-critical systems like air traffic control are compromised, the consequences can be catastrophic,” she says. 

I ask if the future of warfare will be cyber-centric. She looks me in the eye. “Cyber warfare is not a thing of the future; it is already here,” she says. The battlefield has expanded from land, sea, and air to code and networks. “Countries are already investing in building these capabilities.” 

Artificial intelligence (AI), though, is the next frontier, and a complicated one. 

Defence, Sourisse says, has always been an early adopter of advanced technologies. AI will be no different. But in mission-critical environments, she believes AI must meet a higher bar: “It has to be safe, transparent, and ethical. You need to understand how decisions are made. It cannot just be a black box.” Also, the focus has to be on what she calls “frugal AI”, which is efficient, but also energy-conscious. 

And yet, for all its promise, she is of the view that AI will not replace humans entirely — at least not in the foreseeable future, and not in defence. 

Sourisse is, in many ways, an outlier in the industry she inhabits. Defence companies are overwhelmingly led by men. Women at the helm are rare. 

She acknowledges this reality but does not overstate it. “It is true there are not many women in such positions,” she says. But whether it is man or woman, the role remains demanding, requiring deep technical expertise, constant engagement with stakeholders, and the ability to operate across geographies and cultures, she adds. 

Born into a family of doctors — her mother is a gynaecologist and father an anaesthetist — she had initially considered medicine. However, seeing her interest in mathematics and physics, her teacher nudged her in that direction, opening the door to engineering. 

She started her career in telecommunications, working with the French government before moving into the private sector at Alcatel, where she worked in the space division, including satellite manufacturing. She rose to lead the space business and steered its transformation, including a merger with Italy’s Leonardo SpA to create Alcatel Alenia Space. 

As the telecom sector consolidated, Alcatel was eventually absorbed by Nokia, even as it chose to divest its space activities. That business was acquired by the Thales Group, bringing Sourisse to Thales, where she continued to lead what became Thales Alenia Space, before moving on to head secure communications, and later, international operations across the group. 

Recognition also came from the French government. She is the commandeur of both the French Légion d’honneur and Ordre du Mérite, an honour conferred for exceptional service in civil or military roles. 

Outside of work, there is another, less structured life. 

Sourisse grew up near the Atlantic coast in western France, and the sea remains a constant companion. “I like sailing,” she says. Solo? “Oh no!” she laughs. “With friends and family.” 

She also hikes in the Alps, and enjoys biking — “a traditional bicycle, not electric,” she says, adding lightly, “It’s better for you.” 

At 64, besides running a business that spans continents and involves a good amount of travel, she makes time for family, which includes two grandchildren — “a boy and a girl”, she says with warmth. 

As lunch draws to a close, the servers return once more, this time with a fruit platter: Dragon fruit, kiwi, apple, neatly sliced and prettily arranged. But by now, both of us are done. We decline in unison, laughing briefly at the excess. 

The conversation, however, continues, returning to India. “It is a complex country,” Sourisse says. “But it has strong assets.” 

Chief among them is talent. India produces about 1.5 million engineers each year, feeding industries from software to aerospace. Yet, this talent pool, she feels, is not as inclusive as it could be. 

Her observation is that it is not easy to find a large number of women engineers in India. Increasing their participation is not just a question of equity, but of economic strength, she says: “Countries that bring more women into the workforce tend to see stronger, more balanced growth.”