In the absence of orders, production almost stopped in the mid -2010s. Ten years later, in 2025, she broke records. Some 1,200 propulsion and guidance kits of AASM bombs (for “modular air-ground armament”) will be released this year from the Safran factory, in Montluçon (Allier), 400 more than in 2024. And, in case of new orders, the industrialist says he is able to double the cadence of the AASM workshop, in accordance with the wish of the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, Sébastien In The platform.
If the successful success of the Rafale, for which these “intelligent bombs” of 250 and 1,000 kilograms are initially planned, made it possible to keep the activity of the factory north of Montluçon alive at the end of the 2010s, production has gone with the Russian invasion in Ukraine: it has been quadrupled since 2022. Provided by France by hundreds, AASM, about five times cheaper have been adapted to be able to be drawn since the Ukrainian Air Force, MIG-29, Sukhoï-27 and Mirage 2000 air planes. The French stocks were reconstructed in parallel.
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