The French Ministry of the Armed Forces has ordered manufacturers participating in the manufacture of Aster anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missiles to give priority in their production to these orders over others, Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced on Monday.
“I have mobilized administrative police powers for the first time, which makes it possible to prioritize a certain number of subcontractors, where civilian orders must now take second place, after military orders, to qualify for this priority for the Aster range,” said the minister in Calvi during an interview with his Italian counterpart Guido Crosetto.
The metallurgist Aubert et Duval, which produces special steels for civil aeronautics as well as for submarines or the tubes of the Caesar gun, is notably targeted by this obligation, according to a Source close to the matter.
The Aster 15 and 30 missiles are produced by MBDA, in cooperation between Paris and Rome. Both countries have provided an unspecified number of these missiles to the Ukrainians for their anti-aircraft defense, who are asking for more to defend themselves. The missile was also used in the Red Sea against drones fired by Houthi rebels.
Sébastien Lecornu left the threat of such a measure hovering at the end of March so that manufacturers could produce more of these missiles and more quickly.
Reduction in production time for Aster
MBDA intends to reduce the production time for Aster from 42 months in 2022 to “less than 18 months in 2026” and production must increase by 50% by this time, according to its president Éric Beranger. But the industrial organization is not optimal with missile components having to “cross the Alps several times” during their manufacturing, which does not facilitate the ramp-up.
For Sébastien Lecornu, there is also “an emergency for bureaucratic simplification” with “customs issues between France and Italy which can delay missile production”. “Those involved in the defense industries must understand that we must work faster, and that the future of the country depends on this work. This thing is not yet entirely clear,” added the Italian minister.
In a joint letter to MBDA, the two ministers once again ask the group “to accelerate production (…) in order to guarantee the first deliveries from this year 2024”. They also ask MBDA to “intensify [ses] efforts” to set up a second missile assembly line in Italy “in order to increase production capacities”.
Sébastien Lecornu and Guido Crosetto also announced the signing of a letter of intent in order to bring together the land arms industries of the two countries, which should “give rise to rapprochements on equipment projects for our two armies of land”, according to the French minister. This approach frames the “strategic alliance” established in December between the Franco-German group KNDS and the Italian Leonardo.
A Franco-German project for a future battle tank
Paris is in fact a shareholder in the French branch of KNDS (formerly Nexter), while Rome is a shareholder for the Italian defense giant. This alliance aims to “create a true European defense group” and to develop “the future generation of armored vehicle platforms, in particular the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS)”, the companies announced at the time.
The MGCS is the Franco-German project for a future battle tank, a program in which Rome has observer status. For Sébastien Lecornu, “there is something natural in the fact that Italy can obviously participate in this tank of the future project. (…) We must not confuse speed and precipitation, but the interest is there.” “It is essential to bring together all the best European technologies and create ever stronger clusters,” said Guido Crosetto.
