Delivering MBDA’s annual press conference in Paris on 17 March 2025, company CEO Eric Béranger argued that, amid the ongoing war in Ukraine and Europe’s strained relations with the new US Trump Administration, European co-operation is more important than ever.
“Last year, you may remember that I mentioned that we were in the middle of very important changes, where time matters, where volume matters and where speed of innovation matters. One year afterwards, after what has happened in 2024 and what is happening currently, I think that this diagnosis is even more true than ever,” Béranger said in opening his presentation.
“We are living through a moment where the alliances in the world are being challenged, tested. We are living in a moment where the behaviour of historical allies is becoming more uncertain, and so we are living, really, in a historical moment where we are shifting from one period to another. And, of course, this does have some consequences, and through those consequences … the model of MBDA is proving relevant: the co-operation model, where several European countries are co-operating together in order to benefit from all the potential capabilities in terms of complex weapons in full sovereignty.”
Noting that Europe is now “actively discussing how it wants to take its destiny in its own hand”, Béranger said that “in this moment, in MBDA, we are continuing to do what we have always done because, by definition in our DNA, we are a tool for co-operation.”
MBDA was initially formed in December 2001 when France’s Aérospatiale Matra Missiles, Anglo-French Matra BAe Dynamics and the missile activities of Anglo-Italian Alenia Marconi Systems were merged to consolidate Europe’s missile capabilities. Today, the company is the driving force behind European complex weapons development.
“Co-operation is not easy,” said Béranger. “You need first to learn how to work together, but what is very important and what is a key asset inside MBDA is that today we have people, we have teams, who know how to co-operate.”
It is that capability, combined with possessing the design authority for its own weapon systems, noted Béranger, that allowed the company to integrate its SCALP/Storm Shadow cruise missiles onto Ukrainian fighters in just a few weeks, providing a long-range strike capability against the invading Russian forces.
Béranger also referenced the continued need for Europe’s defence industry to ramp up its munitions production in response to the continuing war in Ukraine. “In 2024 we produced and delivered 33% more missiles than in 2023, and in 2025 the production of new missiles … will have doubled when compared to 2023,” he noted. “So this gives you an idea of the magnitude of what is happening today inside MBDA. Last year. I mentioned [that] our production should [have increased] by 50% in 2026 versus 2022. In fact, we are very much ahead of this. In 2025 alone we will produce and deliver five times more Aster [missiles] than what was initially foreseen.”
With regard to how MBDA is managing this ramp-up in production, Béranger said, “There’s no magic. Accelerating means significant investments.”
He said the company is investing around EUR2-4-2.5 billion over the next five years along with hiring and training a significant number of extra personnel, noting that at the end of this year the company will number almost 19,000 staff: a growth of 60% in five years.
Béranger also mentioned that MBDA is preproducing certain subassemblies in order to speed up production as well as taking measures to ensure its security of supply. In January 2025, for example, the company finalised the acquisition of Safran’s 50% share of rocket propulsion specialist Roxel, making it a wholly owned MBDA subsidiary.
In terms of new business areas, as well as continuing with new missile developments such as the Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon (a next-generation UK/French successor to Storm Shadow/SCALP) and the Aquila hypersonic missile interceptor concept, Béranger said MBDA is also looking at loitering munitions (LMs). He noted that the company would not be looking to develop LM air vehicles itself, but rather apply its expertise in warhead integration in conjunction with partners that do produce LMs.
In his annual press briefing in March 2024, Béranger noted that MBDA’s total revenues in 2023 were EUR4.5 billion and that order intakes for the year were at a new record total of EUR 9.9 billion, with the company’s backlog reaching EUR 28 billion. This year Béranger noted that MBDA’s figures for 2024 had significantly surpassed those: revenues were at EUR 4.9 billion, the order intake for 2024 stood at EUR 13.8 billion and the company’s backlog stood at EUR 37 billion.
Concluding his presentation, Béranger said, “We have all that we need in Europe; we have all the technological capabilities that we need; we have the brains, which means it is really a matter of we want to do in Europe, what position we want to reach. And this is the reason why the moment is absolutely historic, I think, because this is exactly what is being discussed between the various [European] heads of state during all those [recent] summits that are happening. Our job as MBDA is to meet whatever decision those heads of state will take and make all the potential products that will be needed available to our armed forces so that they have the means to gain operational superiority and to accomplish their mission: on the land, at sea, in the air and I think soon as well in space because space is becoming more and more important.”
