France to Build New Aster and MICA Air Defense Missile Plant

European defense company MBDA will build a new plant in the suburbs of Orléans, France, to increase production capacity.

For this purpose, the company is purchasing a 40-hectare site, twice the size of its main facility in Bourges, Le Monde reports.

The plant will be part of the company’s €5 billion investment plan for 2026-2030 and will allow total missile production to increase sixfold compared with 2023.

The new facility will house additional production lines for components for Aster and MICA air defense missiles, which are actively used in Ukraine. At the same time, the facility in Selles-Saint-Denis will continue producing explosives and loading warheads.

The plant will become fully operational in 2030. To begin production as early as 2027, MBDA will lease nearby production facilities formerly owned by the bankrupt company Vergnet.

The decision to expand was driven by a lack of available space and the exhaustion of the labor pool at the Bourges sites. Orléans was chosen because of its favorable logistics links between the company’s headquarters and existing plants, as well as its developed industrial base of defense companies.

Aster family air defense missiles, including the Aster 15 and Aster 30, and MICA missiles, including the naval VL MICA and ground-based and air-launched MICA IR/RF versions, are used for air and missile defense by the navies of France, Italy, the United Kingdom and several other countries. The missiles are also used in the SAMP/T and VL MICA ground-based air defense systems and serve as the primary armament of Rafale, Mirage 2000, and Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets.