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MBDA expects to double missile production output this year compared with 2023 and is exploring cooperation with the car industry to accelerate this further, CEO Eric Beranger says.
After a bumper 2024 that saw the European missile manufacturer receive some €13.8 billion ($15 billion) worth of orders, extending its order backlog to €37 billion, MBDA has already ramped missile production levels by one-third between 2023 and 2024, particularly for air defense missiles including Mistral and Aster, Beranger told journalists in Paris on March 17.
Production is now increasing across the company’s sites in France, Germany, Italy and the UK, he says, with the company investing €2.5 billion in new facilities and equipment over five years. Head counts are also on the rise: The company currently employs 19,000, having increased by 50% over the last five years, and it plans to recruit another 2,600 people this year alone.
Beranger says the increased production reflects the regional and global threat picture amid rapidly evolving geopolitics.
“We are today … living through an historical moment,” Beranger says. “The alliances in the world are being challenged and tested … and where the behavior of historical allies is uncertain.”
To address growing demands, MBDA has started preemptively producing batches of subsystems and other missile components ahead of orders so that the company can churn out new missiles quickly should a customer need it. MBDA has also entered talks with undisclosed car manufacturers, an industry “used to volumes” Beranger says, to discuss whether they could support production—particularly of loitering munitions—reflecting the expected growing demand for such systems.
“They [the car industry] can definitely help, and in any case, they do have some experience which can be valuable to us, experience we can learn from,” he says. “We are making sure that we can accelerate, making sure that we can produce more.”
Beranger reveals an effort is underway to “desensitize” the company’s product line from components or systems from U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations that could block their transfer or export of MBDA-produced weaponry.
Beranger refused to say which MBDA weapons still faced such hurdles, but states, “every time our customers want us to be desensitized, we can do that, and we are doing it.” He also says the company is open to producing in Ukraine, but it had not “identified a case where it would make sense to manufacture locally.”
Beranger did not go into detail on missile programs, but says MBDA is now beginning to explore the options for deep-strike capabilities for European countries in response to the European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA) initiative backed by France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK. MBDA has previously proposed a land-based version of its MdCN naval cruise missile to meet the ELSA need.
Meanwhile, the Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) program is continuing through the assessment phase. The program aims to develop a replacement for the Storm Shadow and Scalp air-launched cruise missiles of France and the UK and the Exocet anti-ship missile in France. MBDA is pursuing two weapon designs for FC/ASW: TP15 is a turbofan-powered subsonic cruise missile, while RJ10 is a ramjet-powered anti-ship weapon which would also be adapted for the destruction and suppression of enemy air defenses. Italy is now joining the FC/ASW program as a partner with France and the UK, with the weapons due to enter service in the early 2030s, Beranger says.
MBDA has also been making investments in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, Beranger confirms, with one company supporting the development of algorithms that will augment the capabilities of the weapons starting with the Akeron anti-armor weapon. Another AI startup will support MBDA in identifying molecules of fuels that will be “able to deliver more energy to our engines,” Beranger says.
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