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A defence company offering its anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) for Australia’s LAND 400 Phase 2 project has had its system accepted by France’s defence procurement agency, the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA).
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The French Armed Forces has taken delivery of MBDA's MMP ATGW first batch of 50 missiles and 20 firing posts. The new system will gradually replace the Milan, the HOT missiles mounted on VAB Armoured Fighting Vehicles and the ERYX for some of these missiles.
It will be issued to French Army infantry and cavalry units, and to Special Forces of the Army, Navy and Air Force. The MMP program will see the delivery of 400 firing posts and 1,750 missiles across all of the French Armed Forces by 2025. The first deliveries will be used to train future users. The weapon system will be deployed in operations over the course of 2018.
MMP is being offered to the Australian Defence Force as an integrated ATGW on both the Rheinmetall Boxer and the BAE Systems AMV35 vehicles under the Army’s LAND 400 program.
The missile is also being offered with its Infantry Firing Post for the Army’s LAND 4108 program, which is seeking a replacement to the in-service Javelin ATGW.
MBDA has said it is committed to delivering MMP in partnership with Australia to ensure sovereignty in the operation and sustainment of MMP, and to deliver long-term value and technical capability to Australian industry. Under this commitment, MBDA said it will ensure Australia’s MMP can be built, maintained and evolved in Australia.
To deliver on this approach, MBDA has created an Australian Partnering Network of eight world-class Australian engineering and technical services companies that will carry out much of this work in Australia. The eight companies are Safran Electronics and Defense Australasia, South Australia's Airspeed and Codan, Victoria's Pennant Australasia, Pelican Trimcast and Cablex, West Australian based Hofmann Engineering and Queensland's Ferra Engineering.
MBDA Australia managing director Andy Watson said the company's collaboration with Australian companies not only addresses the government's calls for Australian industrial content (AIC), but also provides better opportunity for the Australian companies in MBDA's international supply chain.
"We have been engaged with some of these companies for more than four years and LAND 400 is now providing the catalyst to allow us to take these relationships to the next stage," Watson said at the Pacific 2017 exposition in Sydney.
"MBDA's approach to Australian industrial content is based on two principles: ensuring the Commonwealth has the highest level of operational independence and sovereignty in its use of the missile and generating real opportunities for Australian industry.
"Our vision is for MMP to become the first missile that is built, maintained and evolved in Australia. This means that the missile will be assembled in Australia, with key components and vehicle integration kits built by world-class Australian companies. We hope that these companies will become part of MBDA's global supply chain for MMP and, in the future, for other MBDA systems."
