Who says war can't be profitable? Ike certainly warned against this when he coined the term Military Industrial Complex. Within 18 months, the EU munitions industry will be in full tilt and NATO nations will resume their purchases of Russian oil/natural gas.
Yep, everything will be right as rain, unless you're one of the unfortunate 40% of Ukraine who have either been forced to leave the country or been bombed out of your home. Or still lives there.
This Missile Maker Is Racing to Rearm Europe
Boosting production at companies such as MBDA is crucial if Europe is to wean itself off American weapons
By Alistair MacDonald and Noemie Bisserbe, WSJ
March 17, 2025 7:02 am ET
SELLES-SAINT-DENIS, France—In a vast factory surrounded by forest, workers here are assembling the missiles that will help rearm Europe and supply Ukraine.
Europe’s ability to wean itself off a post-Cold War reliance on U.S. military power largely depends on factories like this MBDA facility in central France, and how fast they can ramp up production after years of no urgency.
The question is, will the company—and Europe more broadly—be able to increase capacity to make that happen?
President Trump has pushed European countries to spend more on defense. The U.S.’s now reversed decision to stop supplying Ukraine with weapons has also reignited concerns that Europe needs to have sovereignty over arms for fear the same could happen to them.
Increases in European military spending since Russia invaded Ukraine have swelled the order books of the region’s defense companies. But those businesses have so far struggled to keep up with demand, leaving Europe dependent on U.S. imports.
Akeron MP anti-tank missile model being assembled.
MBDA has doubled the monthly production of Akeron antitank guided missiles. Photo: MBDA
“We are at a moment where time matters, volume matters and speed matters,” said Éric Béranger, chief executive of MBDA, one of the world’s largest missile manufacturers. “We are living through historical moments.”
To meet the moment, MBDA is racing to bolster its manufacturing base. On Monday, the company said it would invest $2.7 billion to boost production between 2023 and 2028, as it works to fulfill a roughly $40 billion order book.
By the end of this year, the company will have doubled its production of new missiles from 2023, Béranger said, adding it reflected the “magnitude of what is happening today at MBDA.”
Few companies are as emblematic of Europe’s predicament as MBDA, a major missile maker co-owned by regional defense giants Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo, of Italy.
MBDA makes some of the world’s most sought-after missiles. The Aster was used to shoot down ballistic missiles and Houthi drones in the Middle East last year while the Storm Shadow missile has been among Ukraine’s most potent weapons.
However, European missile production slowed down after the Cold War as the region’s defense budgets shrank and orders dried up. Last year the French government even threatened to nationalize some of MBDA’s production if it didn’t make its missiles faster.
Overhead view of a factory floor with machinery and workers.
Parts for MBDA’s French-made missiles are manufactured at a factory in Bourges. Photo: MBDA
The company, and so Europe, also has some key capability gaps. It doesn’t yet make hypersonic missiles, and its long-range air-defense system isn’t seen as a match for America’s Patriot system.
MBDA has already started to step up. Today, it can make 40 of its shorter-range Mistral missiles a month—up from 10 before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—and it has doubled the production of Akeron antitank guided missiles to 40 a month. Its next target is to increase output of its Aster air-defense missiles by 50% by 2026, compared with 2022 levels, while more than halving the time it takes to make one.
Obstacles to ramping up production—witnessed across the arms industry—include hiring enough skilled staff and fostering a reliable supply chain.
MBDA hired 2,500 people last year across its operations in Britain, France and Italy, and plans to recruit another 2,600 this year. In central France, the company is working with local state unemployment agencies to identify and train recruits. It is also offering higher salaries than other local companies to lure talent.
Supply chains have also been a focus. The company now stockpiles 80 metric tons of specialist steel, up from around five tons before the start of the war in Ukraine. It also has enough titanium to create several thousand missiles.
Parts for MBDA’s French-made missiles, including nose cones and wings, are manufactured at a factory in Bourges by machines as large as small houses. Over the past year, the company has added 12 machines and it plans to add a further 13 by the end of 2026—doubling its tally to 50. Some are so new they are still in plastic wrapping.
MBDA missiles on display at Farnborough International Airshow in the U.K.
An MBDA display at Farnborough International Airshow in the U.K. last year. Photo: Neil hall/Shutterstock
The 100,000-square-foot factory floor is always busy after MBDA initiated more nighttime and weekend shifts to increase production.
Once made, missile parts are shipped 40 miles north to Selles-Saint-Denis where they are assembled and the explosive added. Here, workers peer into microscopes to assemble the electronic parts of the missiles before they are transferred into a high-security room where the pyrotechnic charge is added.
MBDA is already constructing new buildings on this 1,350-acre site after buying 500 acres from a neighbor. It is also expanding the building dedicated to Aster missiles as part of a plan to invest more than $160 million in the site by 2030.
Once finished, new missiles are stored in vast nearby bunkers buried under mounds of earth, enough to contain any explosion, before being shipped to clients.
Like other defense companies, MBDA wasn’t prepared for the surge in demand after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its executives have said.
MBDA missiles on display at the ILA Berlin Air Show.
An MBDA display in Germany last year. Photo: Hannibal Hanschke/Shutterstock
The Aster, for instance, was developed after the end of the Cold War when there was less urgency to produce. At that time, European defense budgets fell and manufacturing of some weapon systems was shuttered or scaled down.
By contrast, American companies, with the world’s largest defense budget behind them, kept churning out weapons. That meant European governments often turned to U.S. companies in times of need, meaning fewer orders for local manufacturers.
“Even in a time of low demand, U.S. manufacturers would still have a minimum order intake to retain a viable production line,” said Fabian Rene Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo who specializes in missile technology.
American companies continue to pump out more weaponry than European peers. MBDA’s production of cruise missiles—including the Scalp and Taurus—is likely to be in the tens, rather than hundreds, of missiles a year, analysts say. U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, produces around 720 of its cruise missile—the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile—annually, with plans to expand output to around 1,100.
Around two thirds of arms imports by European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization came from the U.S. over the five years ending 2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank.
MBDA’s challenges aren’t limited to making more missiles, faster.
Despite the strong demand for long-distance air-defense systems, MBDA’s Samp/T has failed to gain traction. So far it has attracted just three buyers, two of which—France and Italy—are involved in its production.
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America’s Patriot system has 19 users, nine of which are European.
After arriving in Ukraine, the Samp/T suffered software problems and failed to shoot down ballistic missiles, according to people familiar with the matter.
A spokesman for Eurosam, the consortium that makes the Samp/T, said the group had received positive feedback on its effectiveness in Ukraine.
Europe is also lagging behind the U.S., China and Russia in developing hypersonic missiles, which can fly more than five times the speed of sound and maneuver to their target.
An MBDA-led system to defend against hypersonic missiles won’t enter service for around a decade.
“We have all that we need in Europe,” said Béranger. “It’s a matter of what we want to do.”