This delivery comes less than two and a half years after an initial contract with the OCCAR strengthening the air defence capabilities of France and Italy and a further contract to supplement stocks and accelerate production of ASTER missiles, including for the United Kingdom.
The delivery is a first step towards the schedule acceleration underway. It results from the investments made by MBDA and its industrial partners to meet the needs of its customers and strengthen Europe’s resilience in the face of new threats.
On 23 July 2025, MBDA delivered the first batch of ASTER missiles less than two and a half years since the order was placed as part of a joint acquisition led by OCCAR with Eurosam, the Franco-Italian joint venture of MBDA and Thales.
This acquisition, launched in December 2022, is a cooperation between France and Italy, and supplemented by a further order in February 2025, aiming to strengthen air defence systems of European countries with the production of nearly 1,000 ASTER missiles for the armed forces of Italy, the United Kingdom and France.
The accelerated production of this first batch of missiles is a first step towards the schedule acceleration underway. It is the result of the investments and the actions taken by the MBDA Group, with its customers and partners, to meet the challenges of increasing production.The delivery confirms MBDA’s ability to meet its commitment to reducing the production lead-time of ASTER missiles in 2026 by more than half compared to 2022, and deliver five times more ASTER missiles than originally planned in 2025.
Eric Béranger, CEO of MBDA, said: “The delivery of the first ASTER missiles that benefited from significantly reduced production times is a success for all MBDA teams. I thank them for their ongoing efforts, as well as the industrial partners and State actors involved. It demonstrates our commitment to working alongside our customers to ensure the ramp-up of our industrial facilities and the strengthening of our defence industrial and technological base. This acceleration will provide Italian, French and British armed forces with essential air defence systems to protect European skies, as demonstrated by the use of ASTER in the Red Sea and Ukraine, and increase NATO’s defence capabilities.”
MBDA introduced measures to ramp-up production as early as 2024 to accelerate delivery of missiles already ordered. These measures were formalized in February 2025 through the order of additional ASTER missiles for France, Italy and the UK.
The Group has underpinned its ramp-up efforts, through investment, in particular in its production facilities in Bourges and Selles-Saint-Denis in France and in Fusaro in Italy. It has significantly recruited, built up raw material and component stocks, and supported its entire value chain in Europe.
Between 2023 and 2025, MBDA will have doubled the production of new missiles for the Group as a whole and will continue to invest €2.4 billion between 2025 and 2029 to ensure the ramp-up of production over the coming years.
