MBDA held its annual press conference in Paris today, 15 March, and presented the group’s achievements in 2022 and the challenges to come.
Éric Béranger, CEO of MBDA, said: “At MBDA, cooperation is our strength: the union of countries, of cultures, of expertise and of technology. Cooperation is what allowed us to deliver our strong performance in 2022.”
“Today more than ever, in this deeply troubled international context, we can see how it is through co-operation that we will prevail, support the reinforcement of our countries’ sovereignty, and help ensure the safety of our people,” he added.
MBDA contributes to European air defence security through the comprehensive solutions offered to counter the whole range of air threats, from long-range ballistic missiles to very small unmanned aircraft. Air defence systems operating the Aster missiles are deployed in France, Italy and the UK, on both ships and on land systems such as the SAMP/T, which was recently sent to Ukraine’s borders. Its next generation, SAMP/T NG, continued to advance in 2022 and will be delivered to Italy and France by 2025 and available for export in 2026.
Cooperation in air defence is also built around another emblematic co-operation programme between Italy and the UK, CAMM and CAMM-ER, for which in 2022 MBDA received an order for the Italian Army and the Italian Air Force. Progress was also made on Sky Warden, our flagship solution to counter unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS), a modular scalable system designed to integrate and control multiple sensors and effectors. Sky Warden can address all threats from small aircraft to very small drones, of which we have seen growing use of recently in conflicts in Europe and elsewhere.
In the field of deep strike and heavy anti-ship weapons, 2022 saw the next phase launched of the Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) between France and the United Kingdom, focusing on the coordinated development of the programme, and re-confirmed last week during the Franco-British summit in Paris. Future air combat also stands as a priority for MBDA, being involved in the two major programmes: Germany, France and Spain continued to advance on the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project for which MBDA is responsible for new Remote Carrier effectors and brings its expertise on connected collaborative combat; and with the Global Combat Air Programme, backed by the UK, Italy and Japan, for which MBDA is the effects domain leader.
On the innovation side, good progress was made in 2022 on laser directed energy weapons, with the recent acquisition of Cilas in France, the successful trials of Dragonfire in the UK and of the new tracking technology for high-energy laser (HEL) in Germany.
MBDA was founded on the strong willingness of nations to co-operate, this is our strength and is what makes us successful. It is through the interaction of different cultures, different know-how and different ways of working, while respecting national priorities, that MBDA developed itself as an integrated European company. Investment in people to drive innovation and delivery remains a core focus for MBDA, with a company record-breaking 1,570 new people joining the group in 2022, and a plan to recruit more than 2,000 new employees in 2023.
Outside our domestic countries, among the major export contracts signed in 2022 were the weapon packages for the UAE’s new Rafale aircraft, the weapon packages for Greece’s new frigates and Rafale aircraft, and the CAMM missile contract in Poland.
In total, revenues in 2022 were €4.2 billion, consistent with 2021’s record level. Order intake reached a new record total of €9 billion in 2022, growing MBDA’s order backlog to €22.3 billion.
MBDA is a unique multi-national European group, a world-leader in the field of complex weapon systems, playing a key role in keeping nations safe. Created in the spirit of international co-operation, MBDA and its more than 14,000 employees work together to support the national sovereignty of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, and other allied countries worldwide. As an accelerator for innovation,
MBDA is the only European group capable of designing and manufacturing complex weapons to meet the full range of current and future operational requirements of the three armed forces (land, sea and air). MBDA is owned by Airbus (37.5%), BAE Systems (37.5%) and Leonardo (25%).
