Defense News
PARIS — MBDA, Europe’s largest missile maker, boosted production and deliveries by 33% in 2024, as demand from European governments for air defense and battlefield munitions lifted orders to a record.
The maker of Aster air-defense interceptors, the SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow cruise missile and Exocet anti-ship weapon expects missile production to double this year from the 2023 level, Chief Executive Officer Éric Béranger said at a press conference here on Monday.
MBDA orders have surged since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with European countries spending billions to strengthen their air defenses as well as help Ukraine. The company may stand to gain further over concerns whether the U.S. is a reliable supplier of weapons for Europe, as President Donald Trump threatens to withhold NATO security guarantees, increasingly aligns with Russia and talks of annexing Canada and Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
“This is a little bit a moment of truth for Europe,” Béranger said. “We have all the technological capabilities that we need, we have the brains, which means that it is really a matter of what we want to do in Europe, what position we want to reach. This is the reason why the moment is absolutely historic.”
