France orders additional missiles for its ships which will be capable of “destroying infrastructure of high strategic value”

France is ordering new Exocet anti-ship missiles and deep strike naval cruise missiles (MdCN), materializing its rearmament efforts in the face of the deterioration of the security situation in the world, announced the Ministry of the Armed Forces. Taking advantage of the Euronaval defense exhibition which is being held this week near Paris, the Directorate General for Armaments (DGA) announced this Friday, November 6, the "upcoming signing of a contract with MBDA for the order of new naval cruise missiles (MdCN), the MdCN Mk2", according to a press release. This order, the amount and number of missiles of which concerned have not been specified, is planned in the 2026 budget and is part of the 85% increase in the number of missiles planned for 2030 compared to the target initially planned.

4 billion euros to buy ammunition in 2027 Entered service in 2017 and fired three times during Operation Hamilton in Syria the following year, the naval cruise missile saw its production stopped in 2021 due to lack of orders. Fired from a frigate or submarine, the missile has a range of more than 1,000 kilometers and is used for the “destruction of infrastructure of high strategic value”, according to the ministry.

On Wednesday, the DGA had already announced “the upcoming signing of a framework agreement with MBDA relating to the order of Exocet MM40 B3C missiles”. This framework agreement may also include European countries which will purchase these missiles directly from the DGA and thus benefit from European funding under the Safe program. This anti-ship missile was produced in more than 4.

000 copies since its entry into service in 1975. The latest version known as “MM40 B3C” has been delivered since the end of 2023 and has a range greater than 200 kilometers and a new seeker allowing it to “improve the capabilities of the munition in the face of the major challenge posed by the generalization of new generation electronic countermeasures and stealth ships”, according to the ministry. France plans to devote 4 billion euros to the acquisition of munitions of all types in 2027, compared to 2.4 billion in 2026.

Machine-translated from French