The collaboration programs for air defense, focused on new products and the technological evolution of the systems on which MBDA was born, were the main driving force behind the success of MBDA Italia in 2022.
Today, on the occasion of the company's Italian press conference, it was the managing director of MBDA Italia and Group Director Sales and Business Development MBDA, Lorenzo Mariani, who took stock of the Italian activities for the year 2022 and the first successes of that in progress.
The most significant example is the contract for the production of SHORAD (Short Range Air Defence) systems and CAMM-ER (Common Anti-Air Modular Missile – Extended Range) missiles. The contract, worth over 600 million euros that MBDA Italia has signed with OCCAR, also includes options that can be activated during the year and concerns the supply of GRIFO and MAADS (Medium Advanced Air Defense System) air defense systems, respectively for the Italian Army and the Italian Air Force. The programme, which also provides for the supply of an ISS (In Service Support) for both systems and missiles, will have a duration of approximately 10 years.
The result of a collaboration between Italy and the United Kingdom relating to missiles and missile systems, the CAMM-ER is a new generation missile and represents the extended range variant of the CAMM, already in use by numerous Armed Forces around the world as ammunition on which ground and naval air defense systems are based. CAMM-ER is just the most recent example of the importance of cooperation on which MBDA really bases its success and future.
Another significant and more recent success for MBDA Italia, and for the future of advanced air defense, is once again the result of a long-standing cooperation: that relating to the Aster world.
Indeed, recent months have seen the signing by the Eurosam consortium of contracts for the construction of new Aster missiles and the SAMP/T NG (New Generation) system - which will also be able to use the new Aster B1NT missile - for Italy and France. These orders, in addition to the one relating to the CAMM-ER, will involve all the MBDA Italia plants: from the one in Rome where the software will continue to be developed and environmental tests carried out, to the Fusaro one for the radio frequency equipment and for the ceramic and mechanical technologies, to the La Spezia site dedicated to the integration of new missiles for the Italian customer.
Commenting on the Italian successes of 2022, Lorenzo Mariani stated: “Once again 2022 has shown us how MBDA Italia has done its part for the excellent results of the Group, leveraging shared knowledge and skills. Cooperation is the winning solution both from the point of view of financial results and from a strategic point of view. Sharing solutions, technologies and investments allows us to consolidate a sovereignty on which we can build our defense and our security, in Italy and in Europe. A sovereignty that must be maintained and nurtured with innovation and the evolution of our technologies which, in such a complex context, must be able to respond effectively and promptly to the challenges we continually face, anticipating them as much as possible; a goal that can no longer be postponed and today more and more necessary to pursue".
MBDA Italia significantly contributed to the excellent results achieved in 2022 by the MBDA Group which achieved revenues of 4,2 billion euros - in line with the already considerable level of 2021 - and a new record with approximately 9 billion euros of acquired orders, which brought MBDA's order book to 22,3 billion euro. The Export component was decisive for these results with approximately 6 billion euros of contracts finalized and signed abroad (United Arab Emirates, Greece, Middle and Far East) to which Italy contributed in particular in Egypt, Kuwait and various other Middle Eastern countries.
Still on the subject of cooperation, 2022 also saw the signing of the agreement on the GCAP (Global Combat Air Programme) dedicated to the creation of the sixth generation fighter, in which MBDA Italia will participate within the Italian supply chain of the companies involved, thanks to its expertise on technologies and collaborative weapon systems.
At the end of the press conference, Mariani pointed out that the important results obtained by the Italian company in 2022: “will see a further need to increase the number of employees throughout MBDA Italy; In fact, once again this year our goal is to maintain a workforce increase of at least 10% and reach the end of the year with about 1900 employees” and he underlined that: “technological innovation must also remain a key objective, for us and for all companies in the Italian missile supply chain, to maintain and improve our performance and consolidate the country system that makes Italy a leading player in the defense sector in Europe".
