MBDA Showcases Sovereign Solutions to Protect Citizens at the Paris Air Show

MBDA will be presenting an evolving portfolio of sovereign European defence solutions at the Paris Air Show 2025 at Le Bourget, to enable armed forces to carry out all their missions and ensure the protection of European citizens.

Drawing on feedback from high-intensity conflicts, MBDA continues to innovate to meet the current and future needs of armed forces. Thanks to its DNA of European cooperation, MBDA is the only player in Europe offering forces decisive, high-tech weapon systems, while taking into account the new challenges that armed forces are facing. MBDA is developing new effectors, particularly saturation effectors, based on new ways of doing things. This comprehensive portfolio of solutions enables forces to maintain their operational superiority on the battlefield.

New Effectors

The new effectors being presented by MBDA at the show illustrate the Group’s ability to combine agility and innovation in order to meet the evolving needs of forces, in particular through the implementation of new ways of mass-producing.

One Way Effector: Development of this sovereign long-range solution is through an innovative production scheme in partnership with a drone manufacturer and civilian industrial players, notably from the automotive sector. One Way Effector is a compromise between the need for mass and performance at a lower cost, meeting the challenges faced by armed forces in high-intensity conflicts.

A complete range of RCA: The Remotely Controlled Ammunitions developed by MBDA combine the precision, reliability, agility and weight required for high-intensity conflicts. They offer ease of deployment, flexibility of use, simultaneous observation and neutralization capabilities, and are accurate against localised targets in compartmentalized or difficult-to-access environments. They also offer the capacity to saturate enemy systems at a cost optimized for mass production. In particular, MBDA will be presenting the AKERON RCX 50 and AKERON RCH 170 munitions, part of the AKERON family of beyond line-of-sight firing capabilities.

The SMART missile family: Recent operations have highlighted a lack of SEAD / DEAD (suppression/destruction of enemy air defences) capabilities that counter enemy denial of access strategies in air combat. MBDA is working on saturation weapons and in particular on the design of the SMART missile family, a low-cost intelligent weapon to equip new-generation fighter aircraft.

Decisive Capabilities

The design of MBDA’s decisive complex weapon systems bring superiority combat to gain advantage on the battlefield and provide penetration capability. Current conflicts demonstrate the importance of multi-layered air defence and the importance of decision-making capabilities in Deep Precision Strike. Two areas also considered priorities by NATO and the EU.

Multi-Layered Air Defence: MBDA has every layer of air defence. Offering solutions ranging from anti-drone capabilities to the handling of the most complex threats such as cruise missiles, manoeuvring ballistic missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles. Sky Warden—which integrates effectors such as directed-energy weapons, MISTRAL, MANPAD VSHORAD, VL MICA, and the CAMM, ASTER and Aquila families of missiles are those solutions. Some, such as the already available Aster, have proved their worth in operations, for example in the Red Sea against ballistic missiles. Its latest version, the Aster B1 NT, will offer a new capability in the face of the hypersonic threat, guaranteeing the effectiveness of the SAMP/T long-range air defence system.

Finally, beyond the atmosphere, space represents a new domain to defend. For the first time at the Paris Air Show, MBDA will be presenting a mock-up of the SPLINTER satellite, part of the TOUTATIS project. TOUTATIS is an experiment to demonstrate actions in Low-Earth orbit for the French Space Command.

Deep Strike: MBDA is the only player to offer a complete portfolio of sovereign European solutions in the field of deep precision strike, notably with the SCALP/Storm Shadow, TAURUS and Land Cruise Missile (LCM). MBDA continues to adapt to prepare for the future and is working on the next generation of these solutions. MBDA is displaying the Future Anti-Ship Missile/Future Cruise Missile (FC/ASW), the fruit of European cooperation between France, the UK and Italy, and expected to enter the development phase this year. With this system, MBDA will enable armed forces to maintain their operational advantage beyond 2030.

Preparing for the air combat of the future: MBDA’s range of air-to-air combat missiles is unrivalled in Europe, ensuring air superiority for armed forces in all situations, notably with the Meteor air-to-air missile, developed through European cooperation between six countries. To prepare for the air combat of the future, MBDA is also working on the new generation of this missile, as well as on new effectors, Expandable Remote Carriers, adapted to the challenges of collaborative combat in a high-intensity context. Designed to accompany new-generation fighter aircraft, such as the Future Air Combat System (SCAF), their mission is to penetrate enemy territory, particularly in the most dangerous and remote denial-of-access zones.