Defence Industry News India: European missile manufacturer MBDA Tuesday said that its total order book reached a record 17.4 billion euros in 2018 as the company received new orders worth 4 billion euros in the year. MBDA, which is jointly owned by Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo, said its revenue in 2018 stands at 3.2 billion euros, slightly better than the company’s performance last year.
“Strong performance in our home markets saw MBDA’s domestic order intake of €2.5 billion exceed that from exports at €1.5 billion,” the company said in a statement.
“Our strong financial and in particular our domestic performance is reflective of the strategic importance of the missile sector to Europe’s nations,” said Antoine Bouvier, CEO of MBDA.
Antoine Bouvier said it could only be achieved by the right combination of national programmes and by co-operation across Europe’s nations.
“Without this balance, Europe will lack the critical size of its defence technological and industrial base to autonomously develop the technologies necessary for the operational performance of European armed forces,” he said.
Significant domestic orders in 2018 included a contract from the French DGA to develop the next generation of the MICA air-to-air missile, the renewal of in-service support for the Aster missile across France, Italy and the UK and upgrade and maintenance work on Taurus in Spain, among others.
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While major export orders included the weaponisation of Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft and NH90 helicopters ordered by Qatar and additional export orders for Taurus, MMP and Mistral.
MBDA said these robust orders resulted in corresponding increase in the company’s employee bases as it hired 1,200 new employees across Europe in 2018 with a plan to hire another 1,000 new employees this year.
The European missile manufacturer said signing of a joint venture to pursue the next generation Integrated Air and Missile Defence System (TLVS) for Germany was an important milestone for the company that will pave the path for future success.
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“Formal opening of our new manufacturing facility in Bolton in July 2018 by the UK Secretary of State for Defence marked the completion of five years of development and leaves the company well placed to grow revenue in the future,” MBDA said in a statement.
The company also took steps in 2018 to secure European sovereignty in its supply chain, including the joint purchase, together with Soitec of France, of Dolphin Integration, a specialist of System on Chip (SoC) solutions for low power computing applications.
In 2018, MBDA also delivered vital new operational capabilities to European armed forces, including an operational deployment of MMP with the French Army, the entry of Sea Ceptor in the service of the Royal Navy and major progress on the Land Ceptor system for the British Army.
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It also included the first firing trials of the Marte ER anti-ship missile, and the entry of Meteor, Storm Shadow and Brimstone missiles in the service with their deployment onto Eurofighter.
The year 2018 also saw MMP’s selection as the missile of reference for the development of a beyond line of sight capability for European nations through the sharing of a common doctrine, training and interoperability among European forces under the new Permanent Structured Cooperation framework of the European Union.
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