In Montluçon, in the heart of France, the French defense industry has historically developed away from the enemy borders: the phones remain at the entrance and the workshops evoke a more than the noise of the boots.
Safran’s defense branch, better known for its engines that equip the Airbus and Boeing bestsellers, does not make large spectacular weapons, but high -tech accessories that make them intelligent.
Like the AASM, the high precision modular air weapons, composed of a guide kit and another propulsion, installed respectively in the front and rear of a pump of 250 to 1,000 kg that has not changed much since World War II.
Production multiplied by four
This reference weapons of the French Rafale entered the service in 2008 and nicknamed “Arma Wonder” by the Americans, is used by the Ukrainian army, to which France provided several hundred of these systems.
Incrustible in the MIG-29, SU-25 and Ukrainian hunters, the pumps equipped with the AASM will be delivered at the rate of fifty per month, promised at the beginning of the year the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu.
Precision manufacturing
The eyes only outdoors, a technician adjusts the mirrors of the future Safran gyroscope, a concentrate of technology of a few grams destined to guide pumps, armored vehicles, airplanes and submarines without fear of the fight.
The manufacture of Gyrolasers extends more than 6,000 m2 of “white rooms”, where employees, completely covered and masked, are only visible through the windows and a grid.
Gyroscopes that guarantee the inertial navigation of AASMS make them infallible against interference. The inertial energy station uses the physical properties found in the Foucault pendulum or the upper part: when verifying the measures of angles and accelerations, it restores the position and speed of the armament systems and guide them in space, explains Jean-Noël Mahieu, director of operations at Safran Electronics and Defense.
The French government has asked Safran to integrate AASM in the Ukrainian hunters after JMD’s American ammunition in the GPS guide lost its goals. What was done “in less than four months in the fall of 2023”, which makes possible “treat objectives with excellent precision.”
Since the invasion of Ukraine, the production of AASM has been multiplied by four, with 830 copies manufactured in 2024 and 1,200 planned this year.
Agility and speed
For Franck Soud, Safran’s ability, as a team, to quickly adapt to the requirements of current conflicts constitutes an example of “the war economy early.”
Such profiles are sought by the General Directorate of Armaments (DGA) to counteract the heaviness and long cycles of the classical military industry.
Safran’s feat in the fight against Mar Red Red was summoned this week among the successes of the year 2024 in the Balance of the DGA.
When, at the end of 2023, the French frigates were attacked by low -cost hutis drones, Sophisticated aster missiles, at the very high price, which are attracted to destroying them. An unbearable long -term defense.
“In four weeks,” Safran equipped the Paste XLR frigates, an optronic system that allows “to see the 40 km drone and identify it.”
Team supplier defense activities will be presented at the Bourget International Fair, which will be held in Sena-Saint-Denis from June 16 to 22.
After 46% jump in two years of their annual turnover, 3 billion euros, Safran Electronics and the defense intends to continue this increase, taking advantage of the awareness of threats in Europe and the increase in military budgets.
Source: BFM TV
