MBDA. MBDA is a European multinational corporation specialized in the design, development and manufacturing of missiles and related systems. Headquartered in Le Plessis-Robinson, 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.

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 (1852). 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, leading to the formation of two additional national divisions: MBDA Germany (1,200 employees) and MBDA Spain (25).

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).

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). 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 to form the European Aeronautic Defence and Space or EADS (now rebranded Airbus); the latter thus gained ownership of all of Aérospatiale-Matra's assets, including its stakes in joint ventures; which is how Airbus came to be one of MBDA's three parent companies.

In 1998, GEC-Marconi Radar and Defence Systems (a subsidiary of GEC-Marconi) and  (a subsidiary of Finmeccanica) combined their missile and radar activities to form the 50/50 joint venture Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS). In 1999, British Aerospace purchased and merged with GEC-Marconi to form BAE Systems. Thus the newly-formed BAE Systems gained ownership of both BAe Dynamics' 50% stake in Matra BAe Dynamics and GEC-Marconi Radar and Defence Systems' 50% stake in Alenia Marconi Systems; while Alenia Difesa's 50% stake in the latter remained under the ownership of Finmeccanica, which would later be rebranded Leonardo.

In December 2001, AAM, MBD and the missile systems activities of AMS merged, thus fouding MBDA. In March 2006, LFK-Lenkflugkörpersysteme GmbH (LFK), the German missile subsidiary of EADS, was acquired by MBDA. And on 9 May 2012, it was rebranded MBDA Deutschland GmbH. Together with its subsidiaries TDW and Bayern-Chemie, it forms MBDA Germany. Since February 2002, MBDA has owned 40% of Inmize Sistemas S.L., a Spanish company that was formed to integrate the experience and technology of the major Spanish defence companies in the guided weapons sector. An office was opened in the country in 2010 to manage its local activities. As AMS had R&D assets located in California, MBDA also possess facilities in the United States, choosing to operate in the country via a wholly-owned subsidiary called MBDA Inc. In December 2011, MBDA Inc acquired the Viper Strike activity of Northrop Grumman in Huntsville, Alabama.

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.

Products
Overall, the group has 45 products in service and 15 more in development.
MBDA's products include:
 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)
 Surface-to-air missiles
 Aspide Spada
 CAMM family
 Eurosam Aster family (in cooperation with Thales Group)
 LFK NG (together with Diehl BGT Defence)
 Mistral (also an air-to-air missile)
 Rapier
 Sea Wolf
 Eurosam SAMP/T (in cooperation with Thales)
 MEADS
 PAAMS missile system comprising:
 Eurosam PAAMS(E)
 UKAMS PAAMS(S)
 Air-to-surface missiles
 Apache 
 AS-30L 
 ASMP - French nuclear-armed cruise missile
 Brimstone
 Diamond Back range extension kit  for the SDB 
 PGM 500 and PGM 2000 guided missiles
 Laser-Guided Zuni
 Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG
 Viper Strike
 Land-attack missile
 MdCN
 Anti-ship missiles
 Exocet (air-, surface ship-, coastal battery- and submarine-launched versions)
 Marte (air-, surface ship- and coastal battery-launched versions)
 Otomat/Teseo
 Perseus (CVS401)
 Sea Eagle
 Sea Venom
 Anti-tank missiles
 Akeron MP
 Enforcer
 Eryx
 HOT
 MILAN
 PARS 3 LR - long range (together with Diehl BGT Defence)

Programmes under development 
 ASN4G
 FC/ASW
 Next Generation Multiple Warhead System
 Joint Fire Support Missile (JFS-M)

Locations

France:
Le Plessis-Robinson (headquarters)
Bourges
Selles-Saint-Denis
Germany:
Schrobenhausen
Ulm
Aschau am Inn
Italy:
La Spezia
Rome
Fusaro
United Kingdom:
Filton, Bristol
Bolton, Greater Manchester
Stevenage, Hertfordshire
London, Greater London
United States:
 Westlake Village, California
 Washington, DC
 Huntsville, Alabama
India:
Coimbatore- L&T MBDA Missile Systems (a joint venture between Larsen & Toubro and MBDA)

References

External links
 MBDA website
 MBDA Presents Multiple Solutions For Modern Combat Missions : Meteor, Marte, MMP, Exocet on airrecognition.com

 
Defence companies of France