NATO exercises have again proven the potent air defence capabilities of MBDA’s Aster missile in providing long-range protection from difficult air threats.

Exercise Formidable Shield saw four successful Aster firings conducted by the Royal Navy, French Navy and Italian Navy against supersonic and subsonic sea skimming and manoeuvring targets. Formidable Shield is conducted from the UK’s Hebrides live firing range and is designed to test the Alliance’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) capabilities, being its main such exercise in Europe.

The exercise saw 13 NATO allies and 20 NATO warships co-operate to test their integrated air defence capabilities against a range of challenging scenarios, with Aster successfully conducting single-shot kills against all targets.

During the exercise, Italian Navy frigate “Margottini” successfully fired an Aster 30 against a Coyote GQM-163A supersonic target and an Aster 15 against a Firejet target. Meanwhile, French Navy frigate “Bretagne” fired an Aster 30 against a Coyote GQM-163A supersonic target and Royal Navy destroyer “HMS Defender” successfully conducted an Aster 30 firing against a Firejet.

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%).