The Tangwall Campagin. You come out of a year 2024 record, with a turnover approaching 5 billion euros and a order book exceeding 36 billion. What are you expecting from the Bourget Fair?
Éric Béranger. It is the largest aeronautical fair in the world. This week offers an opportunity to meet many of our customers and partners, with whom we collaborate closely. Having all these people gathered in the same place facilitates exchanges and cooperation.
Are contracts signed on this occasion or is it mainly visibility?
We can of course sign contracts, but it is also an opportunity to announce the launch of new products. For MBDA, this will be the case this year with several announcements. The Bourget Fair is also a showcase to publicize Mbda to the general public and explain the role we play: offer our armed forces decisive military capacities to guarantee their operational superiority in the field, in the exercise of their missions.
Which ones?
One of the major axes of innovation at MBDA focuses on what we call “massification”. It is a question of meeting an increasing strategic need: in addition to high precision weapons, the armed forces need tools capable of saturating the opposing defenses. The One Way Effector, which we are launching at Le Bourget, embodies this approach. It is a new long -range machine – 500 km – which can be produced and deployed in large quantities.
What annual production of One Way Effectors are you targeting every year?
Our objective is to achieve production of up to 1,000 units per month, or even more if necessary, thanks to unpublished partnerships, in particular with a major player in the automotive sector whose production is in France. It is a very different volume of what we produce for more classic missiles. To give an idea, for a missile like the Mistral, we went from ten units per month in 2022 to 40 per month at the end of 2024.
The war in Ukraine pushes the Missilier to reflect on his approach
What pushes you to develop this type of product?
There are of course feedback from the war in Ukraine, but especially the assessments of our customers concerning their needs to accomplish their missions. The primary mission of MBDA is to offer our armed forces decisive military capabilities, to guarantee their operational superiority in the field in the exercise of their missions. In the Western world, we are, outside the United States, the only group to offer a full range of systems, from decision-making weapons to weapons of saturation, adapted to these new needs.
Like laser weapons …
MBDA is indeed the champion of this technology in Europe in its anchor nations. But MBDA does not make these weapons alone. This is why, in France for example, we have taken joint with Safran joint control of Cilas, which develops these capacities. Laser weapons are essential, especially for anti-drone. The Directorate General of Armament ordered systems for the three armed forces, which will be delivered in 2026. It is already available technology, which has already been deployed as part of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The war in Ukraine has shown that drones have become a full -fledged weapon at low cost. Does this push you to review your product approach?
Yes, this forces us to complete our offer on two axes: on the one hand, to offer more teleoperated ammunition, on the other hand, strengthen our defense capacities against these threats.
This is precisely what Sky Warden allows: a system that combines several sensors-radars, cameras, various sensors-and various means of neutralization, from rifle to the jammer, passing by lasers and anti-meal drones, even certain missiles for the largest machines.
You tell us a partnership with the automotive industry. What is its added value in the defense sector?
Undoubtedly, she masters production in large series, which was not traditionally the case in the Missilier sector, at least before the conflict in Ukraine. Today, this ability to respond quickly to increased demand becomes crucial.
Will this collaboration with an actor from the automobile extend to other areas?
For the moment, the main collaboration axis is the rapid manufacture of these new solutions. But once the relationship has been established, other ideas can naturally emerge.
Twice as many missiles produced in 2025 than in 2023
More than a year ago, the Minister of the Armed Forces demanded from MBDA the constitution of stocks and an acceleration of your production. Where are you in 2025?
We are ahead of our goals. On Mistral, for example, we announced that we wanted to quadruple our production rate between 2022 and 2025, but we reached this figure in 2024. We also committed to dividing the production times over this same period, and we are about to succeed. And it’s not over: we continue to invest to increase our capacities. In 2025, we plan to produce twice as many missiles than in 2023.
What exactly do you invest in?
In our infrastructure, machines, or even in some cases, the creation of new production lines, not only with MBDA but also with our subcontractors. The whole chain must go up. And of course we recruit massively: around 2,700 people a year in the group, including almost 1,000 in France. Over the period 2025-2029, we invest around 2.4 billion euros throughout the group to strengthen our industrial tool.
The arrival of Donald Trump questions the reliability of the United States in matters of defense. Do you think Europe can do without them?
It is an extraordinary opportunity to take charge of your destiny. Europe has all the necessary industrial talents and capacities. MBDA is an excellent example of successful European integration. Our DNA is based on interstate and industrial cooperation, and we know how to develop and produce in partnership. That said, it is not only a question of technical capacities, but also organization, structuring and above all political will. If Europe is given the means, it can reach complete autonomy. Today, there are dependencies, but they are not irreversible.
In light of the tensions mentioned, have you noticed an acceleration of the European dynamics of cooperation and investment in defense?
Yes, clearly. We participate in several meetings where this subject is at the heart of discussions. Member States express their concern about the reliability of supplies. Take the example of Poland, which works with MBDA to strengthen its anti -aircraft defense, especially on the intermediate layer, a critical segment. We are engaged in the manufacture and delivery of missiles and launchers within demanding deadlines. This shows that demand increases and that we must prepare to support these needs by accelerating our industrial capacities.
We have the impression that it does not go fast enough … Poland and Germany want to arm quickly and the Americans offer equipment on shelf, unlike Europe.
Of course, we would always like things to move faster. That said, you also have to measure the path traveled. Twenty or twenty-five years ago, if someone had told me that the defense day would be a subject brought to Brussels, with a European commissioner in charge of defense and space, I would have looked at him with disbelief. The lines move.
A recent senatorial report criticizes the slowdown rhythm of orders placed by the Ministry of the Armed Forces in 2025. Does this lack of visibility affect you?
Visibility is crucial. It conditions not only the investment in our production capacities, but also the confidence of subcontractors, who are responsible for almost 70 % of the added value of our missiles. The budgetary delay in France, linked to government renewal, has shifted certain decisions. This did not prevent us from receiving indirect orders, in particular within the framework of cooperation programs such as the Aster missile, through OCCAR (joint organization of armament cooperation, editor’s note).
Pending the contracting of key programs
We imagine all the same that contracts are pending …
We are actually awaiting the contracting of key programs, such as the future anti -service missile/future cruise missile, the successor to the Scalp/Storm Shadow missile and the Exocet missile, which is to enter the development phase this year. This step is important, because without order, the technical specifications remain open, which creates uncertainty and delays the work. However, this capacity is essential for the armed forces to retain their operational advantage in the field beyond 2030.
The Bourget 2025 fair will honor space. What are MBDA’s ambitions in this area?
Space is a new theater of operations. MBDA works in partnership with the startup U-Space on the Toutatis project, which aims to launch in 2026 a satellite demonstrator capable of improving the surveillance and protection of European space assets. The objective is in particular to provide observation, avoidance and engagement capacities of threats in low orbit. As for the integration of means of defense such as lasers, it is up to the military authorities to decide what they want.
