MBDA is a European developer and manufacturer of missiles. It was formed as a joint venture by a merger of the guided missile divisions of EADS, Finmeccanica, and BAE Systems in December 2001. In 2016 the company had more than 10,500 employees. In 2017, MBDA recorded orders for €4.2 bn and an order book of €16.8 bn. The company name is an initialism of the names of the companies that came together to form it: Matra; BAe Dynamics and Alenia. MBDA works with over 90 armed forces worldwide.
History
The consolidation of Europe's missile companies began in 1996, when parts of Matra Defence and BAe Dynamics merged their missile activities to form Matra BAe Dynamics. Matra BAe Dynamics represented half of Matra Hautes Technologies' missile business; the other half was Matra Missiles, which became Aérospatiale-Matra Missiles. Then, Matra group merged with Aérospatiale in 1999. In 2000, Aérospatiale-Matra became part of EADS. In 1998, GEC-Marconi Radar and Defence Systems and combined their missile and radar activities to form Alenia Marconi Systems. In 1999 GEC-Marconi was sold to British Aerospace and became part of the merged company, BAE Systems. In December 2001, MBD and the Missile and Missile Systems activities of AMS merged, creating MBDA. In June 2005, LFK, a unit of Airbus Defence and Security Systems, agreed to be merged into MBDA. On 1 March 2006, LFK became MBDA Germany. ON 9 May 2012, the LFK-Lenkflugkörpersysteme GmbH became MBDA Deutschland GmbH. Since February 2002, MBDA has owned 40% of Inmize Sistemas S.L., a Spanish company which was formed to integrate the experience and technology of the major Spanish defence companies in the guided weapons sector. As AMS had R&D assets located in California, MBDA also managed to acquire development and production facilities in the United States, choosing to operate in the country as a wholly owned subsidiary, called MBDA Inc. In December 2011, MBDA Inc acquired the Viper Strike activity of Northrop Grumman in Huntsville, Alabama.
Products
Overall, the group has 45 products in service and 15 more in development. MBDA's products include:
