MBDA

MBDA
	MBDA Logo
Industry	Defence
Founded	December 2001
Headquarters	Paris, France; Stevenage, United Kingdom; Rome, Italy; Schrobenhausen, Germany
Key people	Antoine Bouvier (CEO)
Products	Missiles, missiles systems, countermeasures, countermining
Revenue	€3.0 billion
Employees	10,000
Parent	BAE Systems (37.5%); EADS (37.5%); Finmeccanica (25%)
Website	mbda-systems.com

MBDA is a missile developer and manufacturer with operations in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.^[3]^[4] It was formed by a merger of French Aérospatiale-Matra Missiles (of EADS), Italian Alenia Marconi Systems (of Finmeccanica) and British Matra BAe Dynamics (of BAE Systems) in December 2001.^[5] In 2003 the company had 10,000 employees. In 2011, MBDA recorded a turnover of €3 bn, produced over 3,000 missiles and achieved an order book of €10.5 bn. MBDA works with over 90 armed forces worldwide.

History[edit | edit source]

The consolidation of Europe's missile companies began in 1996, when parts of Matra Defense and BAe Dynamics merged their missile activities 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). 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 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.^[6] In June 2005, LFK, a unit of EADS 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 owns 40% of Inmize Sistemas S.L., a Spanish company which was formed to integrate the experience and technology of the major Spanish defense 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.^[4] In December 2011, MBDA Inc acquired the Viper Strike activity of Northrop Grumann in Huntsville, Alabama.