On December 20, the OCCAR (Organization for Joint Armament Cooperation) notified the 1 Amendment of the B1NT Program to EUROSAM, the consortium formed by MBDA and Thales. This amendment stipulates Italy's participation in the program and follows the notification of the original French contract by 23 December 2015 and the subsequent Arrangement of Cooperation, signed in June 2016 by French and Italian defense ministers. The responsibilities and rights of the two nations are thus defined with regard to the joint development of the missile, as well as the various areas of application in land and naval defense systems against airstrikes and ballistic missiles.
The "B1NT" program foresees the development by MBDA of the new version of the 30 Block Aster 1 NT (New Technology) missile, as well as the modernization of the SAMP / T systems (currently in service at the French aeronautics and the army Italian), which will acquire more capabilities, in particular against ballistic missiles, bringing an essential contribution from both countries within the NATO program in this field.
The development of the Aster 30 Block 1 NT missile responds to a dual requirement (same ammunition for ground and naval systems based Aster), thus providing the necessary adjustments to allow the missile to be launched by naval units. In fact, Italy has expressed the desire to be able to use the Aster 30 Block 1 NT on future PPA units (Multipurpose Offshore Patrol boats).
MBDA's CEO, Antoine Bouvier, commented: "The notification by the Italian side strengthens the Aster program and has a value that goes beyond the economic and technological contribution. Once again we have evidence that cooperation in Europe adds more than the countries alone could have done. After the current Aster 30 Block 1, which provided Europe with a first defense capability against ballistic missiles, the Block 1 NT version will allow to extend this capability against more complex threats, such as the emerging anti-ship ballistic missiles ( AntiShip Ballistic Missiles -ASBM)".
