MBDA

'MBDA' is a European arms company which manufactures missiles and is the result of the 2001 merger of Aérospatiale-Matra Missiles (of EADS), Alenia Marconi Systems' missile divisions and Matra BAe Dynamics. As of 2003 the company had 10,000 employees and in 2005 an annual turnover of €3 bn.

Contents

History

Product range

Locations

Shareholders

References

External links

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. 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, near Bolton in Lancashire with 170 jobs to go.^[3]

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

★
★ 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

★
★ Trigat

★
★ 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

Locations

★ :

★
★ Filton, Bristol

★
★ Lostock, Bolton

★
★ Stevenage

★
★ Strand, London (company headquarters)

★ :

★
★ Bourges

★
★ Châtillon,Paris

★
★ Plessis Robinson, Paris

★ :

★
★ Ulm

★
★ Unterschleißheim

★
★ Schrobenhausen

★ :

★
★ Fusaro, Napoli

★
★ La Spezia

★
★ Rome

Shareholders

''This information is correct as of February 2006.''

★ EADS (37.5%)

★ BAE Systems (37.5%)

★ Finmeccanica (25%)

References

1. Financial Position
2. "MBDA prepares for consolidation." ''Financial Times''. Retrieved March 18, 2006.
3. "MBDA announces redundancies]." ''Bolton News''. Retrieved October 22, 2006

External links

★ MBDA website