The twin threats from Russia and Iran have
brought about a long awaited shift in Europe’s defence posture highlighting its
vulnerability in the new era of ballistic missile and drone attacks and the
urgent need to counter them. The over reliance on US military capabilities and highly
volatile foreign policy coming from Washington has given a new impetus in
Europe to home grown advanced weapons development and production, and evidence
of this was forthcoming at the MBDA Annual Press Conference held in Paris on 26
March 2026.
The scale of the ramping up of activity on
a wide spectrum of weapons systems programmes across the multi-national group
was emphasised by CEO Eric Beranger when he said that between 2023 and the end
of 2025 missile production had doubled and a further 40% production rise was
also planned in 2026. The order backlog at year end 2025 was over 44.4 billion
Euros following an order intake of 13% Euros. Alongside this massive boost in
business the company’s planned investment over the next five years is planned
to double to 5 billion Euros. The close of 2025 saw revenues reach 5.8 billion
Euros. This reflected the completion of major contracts with partners in Europe
and beyond and increased adoption of advanced technologies which addressed the
continuous evolution of global threats. He stated, “This is a major achievement
for MBDA in 2025 and underscores the pressing realities we face. MBDA is now
more essential than ever in Europe, serving as a key asset for the continent’s
resilience and collective defence, offering our armed forces the best means to
protect what we hold dear: our freedoms, our democratic model and our values.”
Looking forward and to the planned
increases in investment he said that in 2026 he expected to be hiring 2,800 new
people. During the conference he told journalists that the company had been
working hard to over-produce production, to meet new levels of demand, and in
some cases even ahead of contract signing, such is the urgency in building up
stocks. Details must remain confidential, he said, but in some programmes to
meet urgent operational requirements production deliveries had been severely
speeded up, in weeks not years, as had often been the normal pattern. Some
weapons deliveries were increasing four fold, and there was great agility in
responding to new needs. Mass matters and some new initiatives have been self-funded
to exploit company capabilities so deliveries can be made at an appropriate
scale and get results quickly. One important new effector product had been taken
from “a blank sheet proposal” to initial testing in just 10 months. New
anti-drone missiles were an example from a full spectrum of advanced weapons
available or under rapid development. He mentioned the UK’s Dragononfire laser
weapon, produced by a consortium including MBDA which has been brought forward
to enter Royal Navy service next year instead of the original planned 2030 timescale.
Each country within the MBDA partnership
had a lead on at least one programme and the company was becoming more
efficient as well as more capable and resilient as activity ramps up. All new
missiles such as Stratus were capable of adaption for different tasks and would
be produced in different versions offering great value and flexibility in deep
strike and recent conflicts had led to adopting many new solutions emerging. An
important feature was having European sovereignty in the capability to develop,
deliver and enhance new weapons and associated systems. For example, air launched
weapons adapted and ready in just a few weeks to be operated by Ukraine on
Soviet era combat aircraft. Beranger said that Europe can’t have a voice
without investing more in its own defence. This must be done collectively and
among individual nations as well, and this means having a full range of defence
capabilities. More joint projects and procurements expand experience of
bringing forward new capabilities. He said they know how to engineer adaptions
and share responsibilities integrating systems so MBDA weapons have a
widespread and growing global market helping nations to defend themselves
against all types of threat.
Stockpiles of completed weapons also need
to be backed up by a resilient supply chain and stockpiling key components are
also essential. Production of the MBDA family of air defence missiles for land
based and sea defence against hypersonic missiles and aircraft and counter
drone weapons are all being ramped up in production. Vertical launch has
operational advantages whether for ground based air defence or at sea and MBDA
is well placed for this growing market where mass attacks also require
appropriate responses. Laser effectors are part of this. Value for money
remains part of the defence solution but joint development and production helps
deliver the right solutions and the company has made enormous progress and will
continue to meet new demands as they arise.