MBDA

MBDA is a missile manufacturer with operations in France, Germany, Italy and Britain. It was formed as a result of the 2001 merger of Aérospatiale-Matra Missiles (of EADS), Finmeccanica and Matra BAe Dynamics. As of 2003 the company had 10,000 employees and in 2005 an annual turnover of €3 bn.

[edit] History

The consolidation of Europe's missile companies began in 1996, when parts of Matra Defense and BAe Dynamics merged to form Matra BAe Dynamics (MBD). Matra BAe Dynamics represented half of Matra Hautes Technologies' missile business, the other half was Matra Missiles which became Aérospatiale-Matra Missiles (AMM), when Matra merged with Aérospatiale in 1999. In 2000, Aérospatiale-Matra became part of EADS.

In 1998, GEC-Marconi Radar and Defence Systems and Alenia Difesa combined their missile and radar activities to form Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS). In 1999 GEC-Marconi (renamed Marconi Electronic Systems) was sold to British Aerospace and became part of the merged company, BAE Systems.

In December 2001, MBD (including AMM) and the Missile and Missile Systems activities of AMS merged, creating MBDA.

In June 2005, LFK, a unit of EADS Defence and Security Systems, agreed to be merged into MBDA. On March 1, 2006, LFK became MBDA Deutschland.

On March 16, 2006 the Financial Times reported the possible sale of BAE's 37.5% share of MBDA. The paper reports that EADS is keen to take full control of the joint venture by acquiring the BAE share and Finmeccanica's 25%.^[2]

On October 20, 2006 The Bolton News reported a redundancy programme of 250 jobs across all three British sites over 15 months, the greatest hit site being Lostock, Bolton in Greater Manchester with 170 jobs to go.^[3]

[edit] Product range

MBDA's products include:

• Air-to-air missiles:
  • AIM-132 ASRAAM - short range, IR guided
  • Meteor - long range, active radar terminal homing
  • Mica - IR and radar guided versions (also SAM)
• Surface-to-air missiles:
  • Mistral (also AAM)
  • Eurosam Aster - medium and long range SAMs, both land and naval versions
  • LFK NG (together with Diehl BGT Defence)
  • Aspide
  • Rapier
  • Seawolf
• Air-to-surface missiles:
  • Apache and derivatives such as Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG
  • AS 30 laser-guided missile
  • PGM 500 and PGM 2000 guided missiles
• Anti-ship missiles:
  • Exocet
  • Otomat/Teseo
  • Marte (missile)
• Anti-tank missiles:
  • MILAN
  • PARS 3 LR - long range (together with Diehl BGT Defence)
  • ERYX - short range
  • Brimstone ATGM - air-launched
  • HOT
• Systems
  • Spada
  • Eurosam SAMP/T
  • PAAMS missile system comprising:
    • UKAMS PAAMS(S)
    • Eurosam PAAMS(E)
  • Eurosam SAAM-IT
  • Eurosam SAAM-FR

[edit] Locations

•  United Kingdom:
  • Filton, Bristol
  • Lostock, Bolton
  • Stevenage
  • Strand, London (company headquarters)

•  France:
  • Bourges
  • Châtillon, Paris
  • Plessis Robinson, Paris

•  Germany:
  • Ulm
  • Unterschleißheim
  • Schrobenhausen

•  Italy:
  • Fusaro, Napoli
  • La Spezia
  • Rome

[edit] Shareholders

This information is correct as of April 2008.

• BAE Systems (37.5%)
• EADS (37.5%)
• Finmeccanica (25%)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• MBDA website