PARIS — MBDA is advancing with a land-launched version of its Naval Cruise Missile to offer European nations a long-range strike option, with the pan-European missile maker presenting a truck-transportable launcher and plans for a missile upgrade at the Eurosatory defense show.
The upgraded version of the cruise missile is expected to be available in 2030 and will have longer range, better jamming resistance, a bigger payload and improved stealth for better survivability, Sophie Bourdais, MBDA’s commercial director for strike, told Defense News at the show near Paris on Tuesday.
“It’s been a few years now, so we’ve made progress on a number of systems and we’ve made progress on the whole package,” Bourdais said. “We have really good reasons to believe that we’ll be able to improve the overall performance of our missiles.”
MBDA’s Naval Cruise Missile, derived from the Storm Shadow/Scalp-EG air-launched cruise missile, entered service with the French Navy in 2017.
Europe lacks long-range strike options that provide deterrence by holding Russian assets at risk, a gap that countries are trying to patch with programs including the European Long-Range Strike Approach, or ELSA.
The United States in May reportedly shelved plans to deploy its Typhon launchers, capable of firing long-range Tomahawk missiles, to Germany, where they were previously intended as an interim capability.
MBDA has been able to promote its Land Cruise Missile system within the ELSA initiative, and several countries are interested, according to Bourdais. The company is in talks with France’s Directorate General for Armament, and hopes to sign a contract this year for development and production of a first batch of the upgraded missiles, she said.
The new version of the naval cruise missile will have a range “well over 1,000 kilometers, comparable to the Tomahawk,” Bourdais said. She said the missile will be used for both naval and land launch.
The company displayed a four-canister launcher for the Land Cruise Missile which was developed in-house and can be deployed from the back of a truck.
An information sheet by the French Armed Forces Ministry prepared for Eurosatory added the name MdCT, for Missile de Croisière Terrestre, as an official designation for the missile, in addition to the existing MdCN, for Missile de Croisière Naval.
MBDA presented other missiles and drones for strike missions at Eurosatory, including a jet-powered drone dubbed Deluge and previously known as the One-Way Effector, designed to saturate air defenses. The drone can carry an artillery shell within its fuselage and has been ordered by the DGA, with the first production versions expected to be delivered in the first half of 2027.
The company also displayed its Crossbow cheap cruise missile for precision strike on targets such as launchers, radar systems and command posts. MBDA said the three effectors can work as a system, with the expendable Deluge drones saturating enemy air defenses and opening the way for the more expensive Crossbow and LCM missiles.
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.
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