MBDA will build a 40-hectare missile factory near Orléans, fully operational in 2030, to meet strong demand and increase its production sixfold.
MBDA announced Thursday June 11 its plan to build a missile factory near Orléans, without specifying the town. The establishment will stand on 40 hectares of industrial land, currently being acquired, or twice the size of the Bourges Aéroport factory, the group’s main missile production site in France. If the amount of the investment is not communicated, the factory, fully operational in 2030, could ultimately generate several hundred jobs.
Capacity objective and industrial calendar
This project meets an ambitious objective: to multiply total missile production sixfold by 2030 compared to 2023, as part of an investment plan of 5 billion euros over the period 2026-2030. To avoid waiting for delivery of the site, MBDA plans to rent adjoining buildings in order to start production from 2027. According to La République du Center, these would be the former premises of Vergnet, placed in compulsory liquidation in February, which the group does not comment on. The ambition displayed goes far: according to BFMTV, MBDA ultimately intends to surpass Russia in production volume.
“This factory will host lines dedicated to the production of missile elements for which we have strong demand,” said Stéphane Reb, general manager of MBDA France. This concerns the Aster and the MICA, two anti-aircraft missiles in high demand in Ukraine and the Middle East. The pyrotechnic part will remain in Selles-Saint-Denis (Loir-et-Cher), whose storage bunkers must also be enlarged.
The complexity of the product partly explains this need for space: the manufacture of a single Aster requires around 40,000 elements, some of which require a year of production. In Bourges, where the workshops are already running on a shift schedule, the group says it “has to push the walls” – a parking lot there will also be replaced this year by a new workshop, hence the need to find space in Orléans.
This pace effort is not new. In March 2024, Sébastien Lecornu, then Minister of the Armed Forces, criticized the slowness of production. MBDA has since committed to reducing the Aster manufacturing cycle by more than half in 2026 compared to 2022, and delivered five times more missiles in 2025 than initially planned. The group is targeting a further doubling of its production in 2026, driven by the ramp-up in Bourges: of the 28 machines purchased over the last two years, half are dedicated to the Aster. This development is part of the rearmament of France and Europe in the face of increasing conflicts. Owned by Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo, MBDA thus consolidates its role in the European defense industrial and technological base. In Berlin, the group recently presented an anti-drone laser solution, illustrating its move upmarket in close defense, according to Air & Cosmos – La Tribune.
Location, employment area and recruitment
The choice of Orléans is not insignificant: halfway between the headquarters of Plessis-Robinson (Hauts-de-Seine), Bourges and Selles-Saint-Denis, the city opens a new employment area, that of Bourges being saturated – the site is already there alongside KNDS and numerous subcontractors. In the Center region, MBDA employs 2,400 employees, or 30% more than in 2020, and plans around 300 recruitments this year, as many as in 2025. On the future Orléans site, several hundred jobs are expected in the long term.
