MBDA

MBDA, a world leader in missiles and missile systems, is a multi-national group with 10,000 employees on industrial facilities in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and the United States. MBDA has three major aeronautical and defence shareholders - BAE Systems (37.5%), EADS (37.5%) and Finmeccanica (25%), and is the first truly integrated European defence company. In 2011, the Group recorded a turnover of 3 billion euros, produced about 3,000 missiles and achieved an order book of 10.5 billion euros, new orders came to 2.6 billion euros. MBDA works with over 90 armed forces worldwide.

MBDA was created in December 2001, after the merger of the main missile producers in France, Italy and Great Britain. Each of these companies contributed the experience gained from fifty years of technological and operational success. The restructuring of the industry in Europe was completed with the acquisition of the German subsidiary EADS/LFK in March 2006. This further enriched MBDA’s range of technologies and products, consolidating the Group’s world-leading position in the industry.

MBDA is the only Group capable of designing and producing missiles and missile systems to meet the whole range of current and future operational requirements for the three armed forces (army, navy, air force). Overall, the Group offers a range of 45 products in service and another 15 in development.

MBDA has demonstrated its ability to bring together the best skills across the whole of Europe, and has succeeded in becoming the prime contractor for a series of strategic multi-national programmes. These include the six-nation Meteor air superiority weapon, the Franco-British conventionally armed cruise missile, Storm Shadow/SCALP, and a family of air defence systems based on the Aster missile for France and Italy (for ground and naval based air defence) and for the UK (naval air defence for the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers).

Other programs such as MEADS further serve to position MBDA at the heart of the European defence sector as well as establishing cooperative transatlantic links with the principal groups in the US defence industry.

In parallel to these large cooperative programs, MBDA’s name is inseparable from a number of systems which have strengthened its reputation as an unrivalled leader. The MILAN anti-armour weapon has been supplied to over 40 countries in the world and the Exocet anti-ship missile, in its surface, submarine and air-launched variants, represents the main naval superiority weapon of navies throughout the world.

The mastery of cutting-edge technologies is not only an advantage for MBDA in successfully developing and producing new products. It is also a means of guaranteeing customers that innovations can be made to existing products during their life span in order to meet constantly changing specifications arising from increasingly complex engagement scenarios. It is precisely this combination which makes MBDA the defence sector partner of choice in many countries around the world.