“War economy” – France orders industrial companies to increase production of Aster anti-aircraft missiles

The French Ministry of the Armed Forces has ordered industrial companies involved in the manufacture of Aster anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missiles to give priority in their production for these orders in relation to others, Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced on Monday.

“We mobilized administrative police powers for the first time, which allows prioritizing a certain number of sub-contractors, where civilian orders must now take a back seat, after military orders, in order to give priority to the Aster range”, said the minister at Calvi, on the occasion of a meeting with his Italian counterpart Guido Crosetto, reports AFP and Agerpres.

The metallurgical company Aubert and Duval, which produces special steels both for civil aeronautics and for submarines or the tubes of Caesar guns, is particularly targeted by this obligation, according to a source close to the file.

The Aster 15 and 30 rockets are produced by the multinational MBDA based in Paris, cooperation between Paris and Rome. The two countries have provided an unspecified number of such missiles to the Ukrainians for their air defense, but Ukraine is demanding more such missiles to defend itself.

Also, this type of missile was used in the Red Sea against drones fired by the Houthi rebels.

At the end of March, Sebastien Lecornu hinted at the threat of such a measure, so that manufacturers could produce more such missiles faster.

MBDA hopes to reduce Aster missile production from 42 months in 2022 to “less than 18 months in 2026,” and production would increase by 50 percent by then, according to its president Eric Beranger.

But the industrial organization is not optimal, the rocket components have to “cross the Alps several times” during their manufacture, which does not facilitate the acceleration of production.

According to Sebastien Lecornu, there is also an “urgent need to simplify the bureaucracy” with “customs problems between France and Italy that can delay missile production”.

In a joint letter to MBDA, the two ministers again ask the group “to accelerate production (…) to guarantee the first deliveries starting this year, 2024”.

They also ask MBDA to “step up its efforts” to put a second missile assembly line into operation in Italy, in order to “increase production capacity.”

Sebastien Lecornu and Guido Crosetto also announced the signing of a letter of intent for the rapprochement of the land armament industries of the two countries, which “should lead to rapprochements on equipment projects for our land forces”, according to the French minister.

This approach comes to frame the “strategic alliance” established in December between the Franco-German group KNDS and the Italian Leonardo.