European guided weapons specialist MBDA enjoyed record success in 2024, securing orders totalling €13.8 billion ($15 billion): up from a previous high of €9.9 billion in 2023.
“In 2024, we delivered one-third more missiles than in 2023. And this year, the production of new missiles will have doubled when compared to 2023,” chief executive Eric Beranger said during an annual results briefing on 17 March. “MBDA is really on the move,” he adds.
The company’s revenues totalled €4.9 billion, and at year-end its order backlog stood at €37 billion, up from €28 billion 12 months earlier.
Increased production means that monthly output of the Aster and Mistral air-defence missiles will be five and four times greater respectively this year against a 2022 baseline, Beranger notes.
“MBDA needs to industrialise itself more in order to deliver at a higher pace and higher volumes,” he states. “To go further in terms of mass, MBDA is in discussion with some industries which are used to volumes [beyond] what we have been used to in our defence domain, for instance in car manufacturing.”
And in order to more rapidly meet the urgent demands of some customers, MBDA is now using an “assemble to order” model, requiring significant investment by the company in stockpiling key components.
“We are in historic times,” he notes, referring to events including the war in Ukraine. Kyiv has employed MBDA products including Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG cruise missiles and the SAMP/T ground-based air-defence system, which recently made a first shoot-down of a Russian air force Sukhoi fighter.
Beranger notes that since he took the CEO role in 2019, MBDA has grown by 50% to total 19,000 employees, while its annual turnover has increased by the same margin and its backlog has doubled.
“We are delivering what needs to be delivered, and adapting at the pace of what is happening around us,” he says.
With regard to air-launched missile programmes, he notes that the Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon – an initiative between France, the UK and recent addition Italy – is in its assessment phase, with service introduction expected “at the turn of the [20]30s”. The development effort will deliver successors for the long-range Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG and Exocet anti-ship missiles.
The company’s Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile is also in the process of being integrated with the Lockheed Martin F-35, via the US-led programme’s Block 4 package of updates.
Another area of growing importance to MBDA involves the development of armed drones, in collaboration with other companies.
“On drones and loitering munitions we are working with start-ups,” Beranger says. “We are teaming because MBDA is not a drone manufacturer. Let’s work with people who know how to do that. The unique capability of MBDA is how to transform a drone into an armament system that will deliver a mission exactly when and where you want.”
The company has already worked on initiatives named Colibri and Larinae for France’s AID defence innovation agency, with the latter using a “remotely-controlled ammunition” concept named Mutant. This would be able to engage a hardened target within an operating radius of 27nm (50km).
While MBDA’s bid for the Colibri requirement was ultimately unsuccessful, Beranger says: “I am convinced that this product is needed – we have a number of customers who are coming to us and showing interest.
“So we have decided to continue despite this setback. We have continued to invest in the development of this capability, which we now call Sphynx.”
The equipment was tested earlier this month in conjunction with France’s DGA defence procurement agency.
“This is also an area where we are having discussions with companies to help us produce in very high volumes,” he says.
