MBDA on Track With its Acceleration of ASTER Missile Production
On 23 July 2025, MBDA delivered the first batch of
ASTER missiles less than two and a half years since the order was placed as
part of a joint acquisition led by OCCAR with Eurosam, the Franco-Italian joint
venture of MBDA and Thales.
This acquisition, launched in
December 2022, is a cooperation between France and Italy, and supplemented by a
further order in February 2025, aiming to strengthen air defence systems of
European countries with the production of nearly 1,000 ASTER missiles for the
armed forces of Italy, the United Kingdom and France.
The accelerated production of
this first batch of missiles is a first step towards the schedule acceleration
underway. It is the result of the investments and the actions taken by the MBDA
Group, with its customers and partners, to meet the challenges of increasing
production. The delivery confirms MBDA’s ability to meet its commitment to
reducing the production lead-time of ASTER missiles in 2026 by more than half
compared to 2022, and deliver five times more ASTER missiles than originally
planned in 2025.
CEO of MBDA, Eric Béranger said,
“The delivery of the first ASTER missiles that benefited from significantly
reduced production times is a success for all MBDA teams. I thank them for
their ongoing efforts, as well as the industrial partners and State actors
involved. It demonstrates our commitment to working alongside our customers to
ensure the ramp-up of our industrial facilities and the strengthening of our
defence industrial and technological base. This acceleration will provide
Italian, French and British armed forces with essential air defence systems to
protect European skies, as demonstrated by the use of ASTER in the Red Sea and
Ukraine, and increase NATO’s defence capabilities.”
MBDA introduced measures to
ramp-up production as early as 2024 to accelerate delivery of missiles already
ordered. These measures were formalised in February 2025 through the order of
additional ASTER missiles for France, Italy and the UK.
The Group has underpinned its
ramp-up efforts, through investment, in particular in its production facilities
in Bourges and Selles-Saint-Denis in France and in Fusaro in Italy. It has
significantly recruited, built up raw material and component stocks, and
supported its entire value chain in Europe.
Between 2023 and 2025, MBDA
will have doubled the production of new missiles for the Group as a whole and
will continue to invest Euros 2.4 billion between 2025 and 2029 to ensure the
ramp-up of production over the coming years.
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