MBDA is a European multinational corporation specialized in the design, development and manufacturing of missiles and related systems.[4][5] Headquartered in Le Plessis-Robinson near Paris, France, the company was founded in December 2001 via the merger of three of the most prominent European missile systems companies: the French Aérospatiale Matra Missiles, the Anglo-French Matra BAe Dynamics and the missile division of the Anglo-Italian Alenia Marconi Systems. These businesses were subsidiaries of EADS (now called Airbus), BAE Systems and Finmeccanica (now Leonardo), and all three remain MBDA's parent companies.[6][7]
MBDA employs around 13,000 people worldwide as of 2023 and, despite being an integrated company, has maintained national divisions since its creation: MBDA France (over 6,000 employees), MBDA UK (over 4,000) and MBDA Italy (1,852).[8][9] They were formed by simply grouping in their respective countries the assets and activities of the various French, British and Italian businesses that had merged to create MBDA.
In March 2006, LFK-Lenkflugkörpersysteme GmbH, the German missile subsidiary of EADS, was acquired by MBDA and in 2010, an office was opened in Madrid, Spain,[10] leading to the formation of two additional national divisions: MBDA Germany (1,200 employees) and MBDA Spain (38).[8]
In 2023, MBDA generated €4.5 billion in revenue. It works with over 90 armed forces worldwide and also has a number of subsidiaries, including one in the United States, MBDA Inc (50 employees).[8]
History
The consolidation within Europe's missile industry began in 1996 when half of the missile business of Matra Hautes Technologies (the Matra conglomerate's aerospace, defence and telecommunications division) merged with the missile activities of BAe Dynamics (itself a division of British Aerospace) to form the 50/50 joint venture Matra BAe Dynamics (MBD). MBDA is an example of where joint venture (JV) formation has been adopted within the European defence industry to facilitate international collaboration.[11]
Three years later, the other half of Matra Hautes Technologies's missile business (Matra Missiles) and Aérospatiale's missile systems division were consolidated to form Aérospatiale Matra Missiles (AMM) following the merger between Aérospatiale and Matra Hautes Technologies in 1999. As a result of these developments, the new French corporation, Aérospatiale-Matra, not only had AAM as its wholly owned missile division but also now held Matra's 50% stake in MBD. In 2000, Aérospatiale-Matra merged with Germany's DASA and Spain's CASA
Structure of the MBDA Group
MBDA sites
- MBDA in France
- Le Plessis-Robinson ( MBDA Group headquarters)
- Bourges Subdray
- Bourges Aéroport
- Selles-Saint-Denis
- MBDA in Germany[18]
- Schrobenhausen (MBDA Deutschland headquarters)
- Aschau am Inn
- Freienhausen (test center)
- Hermeskeil
- Ulm
- MBDA in Italy
Products
Current products
- Air-to-air missiles
- ASRAAM - short range, IR guided
- Meteor - long range, active radar terminal homing
- MICA - IR and radar guided versions (also a surface-to-air missile)
- Mistral ATAM
- Surface-to-air missiles
- Missiles
- CAMM family
- Eurosam Aster family (in cooperation with Thales Group)
- Mistral (also an air-to-air missile)
- MICA VL
Programmes under development
Products in development
Controversies
Data breach
In August 2022, MBDA Missile Systems' data was hacked from a compromised external hard drive. The data allegedly included blueprints of NATO weapons used in the Russo-Ukrainian War, and 80 Gb of such data was sold for 15 Bitcoin. NATO started an investigation trying to assess and minimize the impact of this data breach.[44]
External links
References
- Tim Hepher. MBDA boss faces battle of wits as Airbus strategy chief Reuters, 2019-05-15, retrieved 2020-02-17^
- MBDA expects orders, revenue in Italy to dip this year after new records in 2023 Reuters, 2024-03-22, retrieved 2024-03-23^
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