Paris Air Show 2025: MBDA unveils its One Way Effector

European weapon systems house MBDA debuted its One Way Effector at the 2025 Paris Air Show, held at Le Bourget from 16 to 22 June.

Developed as a self-funded project in conjunction with an unnamed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufacturer and players within the French automotive industry, the One Way Effector is intended to be launched in salvos to saturate hostile air defence systems. With a warhead large enough to compel the enemy’s air defences to destroy it, the One Way Effector is intended to reveal those enemy air defence assets, allowing them to be targeted, while also allowing more sophisticated long-range strike systems to reach their targets.

Rail launched from the ground or off the back of a vehicle, the One Way Effector is powered by a jet engine that gives a speed of around 400 km/h and a range of around 500 km.

Explaining the rationale of the teaming behind the weapon, an MBDA spokesperson told ESD at Bourget on 16 June, “What that does is you’re using the expertise of us in warheads, guidance and effectors, the expertise of the UAV manufacturer for low-cost vehicles, and then what the automotive industry brings is production at scale if it needed to be produced en masse … at thousands of units a month.”

The MBDA spokesperson added that the One Way Effector “has gone from concept to where it is now in a rapidly short space of time, in six months,” and that an example of the system could potentially be test launched later in 2025.