MBDA France With Orders For Akeron MP And Mistral Missiles
The French Direction générale de l’armement (DGA) announced on 1 February, that an order for 1,300 Akeron MP anti-tank guided missiles and 329 Mistral man-portable air defense systems had been placed with the French division of the MBDA, a multinational developer and manufacturer of missiles.
According to the DGA statement, the 1,500 missiles will be delivered to the French army and navy. As of November 2023, the French Armed Forces received 400 launch units and 3,000 Akeron missiles. Akeron is the latest type of ATGM to be utilized by the French armed forces. It has been designed as a successor to the MILAN platform, delivering new features, such as top-attack and fire-and-forget options along with extending the range of attacks. It was revealed recently that some Akeron MP AGTMs have been delivered to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, though they have not yet been seen in imagery from the conflict.
The first batch of 200 Akeron MP missiles from the latest order will be delivered by the end of 2025. The DGA also stated that the order for 329 Mistral missiles is a joint effort of France, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, and Hungary. The representatives of those countries signed a letter of intent for the acquisition of Mistral 3 anti-air systems back in June 2023. Eric Béranger, CEO of MBDA, said:
“Cooperation is at the very heart of MBDA’s DNA, and I firmly believe that we are stronger together. This signature, and our plans to double Mistral annual production capacity, underlines the company’s continuous commitment to projects giving substance to the European defence agenda.”
The joint order for MBDA products is a confirmation of the importance of domestic capabilities to produce advanced military equipment. Many European countries seek to increase the number of their anti-tank and anti-air assets, with ATGMs and MANPADS being viewed as priorities following lessons learnt from the war in Ukraine. This order, however, may be only the beginning of French procurements of anti-tank systems as MBDA plans to develop a new weapon in cooperation with Sweden’s SAAB.
Cover picture by Guillaume Frantz under CC BY-SA 4.0