MBDA Launches Crossbow™ the One Way Effector Heavy At DSEI

MBDA has launched One Way Effector (OWE), an affordable heavy deep fires solution named Crossbow™ the OWE Heavy at DSEI UK. Crossbow™ the OWE Heavy has been designed to be a deep fires capability able to operate in high intensity conflicts and notably in complex electromagnetic environments, at a cost that enables significant combat mass.

With MBDA responsible for the overall weapon system, together with a team of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and large businesses from across Europe, Crossbow™ the OWE Heavy has gone from design to demonstration in seven months.

Helped by a modular design utilising military and commercial “off the shelf” subsystems, production at scale is possible as early as quarter two (Q2) 2026. MBDA has brought its high-end complex weapons understanding to deliver a credible solution, with options for spirally developing the capability across survivability, range/ lethality, navigation, and platform integration as the customer or the evolving threat dictates.

CROSSBOW™ the OWE Heavy is ground launched from the back of a vehicle, delivering multi-role kinetic and non-kinetic payloads up to 300kg out to ranges in excess of 800km, destroying static targets, among which high value assets.

CEO, MBDA, Eric Beranger said, “This project exemplifies the spirit and values of MBDA. It shows that we understand the context of the world today and are adapting, not just to the threat environment, but the procurement environment too. We are demonstrating we are ‘Battle Ready’ with our confidence in our understanding and anticipation of requirements. Our people are also showing their strengths through this project. Cooperation with partners, agile working with a rapid decision mind-set and a tolerance of risk. We are showing we can be different, in what are now different times.”

CROSSBOW™ the OWE Heavy was designed in parallel to the OWE launched at the Paris Air Show 2025, with a similar mind-set but applied to a different threat set, providing a different solution. The similarities also extend to the sovereignty of the capability with 'off the shelf' production mentality lending itself to easy reconfiguration for customers wishing to use domestic supply chains, as well as the options for spiral development.