France and Italy have agreed to manufacture an additional 700 Aster medium-range anti-aircraft missiles, reflecting their common desire to “modernize and maintain their land and naval anti-aircraft defense capabilities,” according to a press release from the French Ministry of Arms. Cash.
The Franco-Italian economic interest group Eurosam (MBDA and Thalès) was notified at the end of December of “a contract for the production of about 700 Aster missiles”, according to this press release published this Monday, three days after the meeting. from Rome. between Sébastien Lecornu, French Minister of the Armed Forces, and his Italian counterpart Guido Crosetto. “This order refers to several versions of this unique missile in Europe,” specifies the ministry, which evokes the Aster 15 and Aster 30 B1 as well as the latest Aster 30 B1NT version.
“This is one of the largest orders for this anti-aircraft missile, the only European system to offer such operational capabilities,” he said. “This global order will require adaptations at the level of the entire industrial chain to face the challenges of the war economy.”
Do you deliver to Ukraine?
There is no mention of a possible delivery of some of its missiles to Ukraine, while kyiv insists on the need for further delivery of weapons, particularly air defense.
Paris and Rome “have been cooperating since the 1980s in the field of medium-range ground-to-air defense around the Aster,” recalls the press release. “This cooperation, unique in Europe for such capabilities” was “extended to the United Kingdom in the naval sector” for the production of a total of more than 1,300 missiles since the 2000s.
This new investment is part of the common desire of the two countries “to modernize their medium-range land anti-aircraft defense systems (…) to face the evolution of the threat,” the text specifies.
Source: BFM TV
