Formation and early years MBDA UK was first incorporated in 1996 as Brathwell, based in
Cardiff, before being renamed Matra BAe Dynamics UK shortly afterwards, serving as the UK-based part of the Anglo-French missile systems company,
Matra BAe Dynamics. In 2001, Matra BAe Dynamics merged with the French
EADS Aerospatiale Matra Missiles and Anglo-Italian
Alenia Marconi Systems to form a pan-European missile systems company, named
MBDA. After the merge, national subsidiaries were created from the predecessor companies in the
United Kingdom,
France and
Italy and named MBDA UK, MBDA France and MBDA Italy, respectively. MBDA UK inherited various products which were designed and manufactured by its predecessor companies, including
Rapier and
Sea Wolf surface-to-air missiles, which were originally manufactured by the
British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). In 2001, the company delivered its
Storm Shadow cruise missile to the
Royal Air Force, which it had co-developed with the French subsidiary of Matra BAe Dynamics. Whilst the weapon was still in trials, it was pushed into operational service for use by the RAF during
Operation Telic in
Iraq. The following year also saw the delivery of the
ASRAAM short-range air-to-air missile, which had been in testing since 1998. as well as Spain and Sweden. Several years later, in 2005, the company delivered its
Brimstone air-launched ground-attack missile to the RAF. Its first operational deployment came in 2008 during
Operation Herrick in
Afghanistan. In 2009, the company made its first export sale for ASRAAM to
Australia. This was followed shortly after by an export sale to
Saudi Arabia.
2010–present . By 2010, the company had begun work on the
Fire Shadow loitering munition for the
British Army. The company's Brimstone missile also received increased publicity following the launch of
Operation Ellamy in
Libya and
Operation Shader in
Iraq and
Syria, with politicians and analysts highlighting the missile's low risk of
collateral damage. This resulted in increased interest in the missile on the export market, in particular by the United States and France. The company further developed Brimstone into a range of variants, including a sea-launched
Brimstone Sea Spear,
Brimstone 3 and an entirely new missile, currently named
SPEAR 3, which uses technology derived from Brimstone. The
Lancaster House Treaties signed in 2010 by the British and French governments resulted in the company collaborating with MBDA France on several missile projects, including the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (Heavy) (FASGW(H)) anti-ship missile, later named
Sea Venom, and a new
hypersonic cruise missile, later named
Perseus. In 2017, the company began leading a consortium to develop a laser
directed-energy weapon technology demonstrator, named
Dragonfire, for the UK MOD. In 2018, MBDA UK opened a new facility in
Bolton to carry out final assembly work for Meteor for all six European partner nations. By 2018, the missile had achieved marked export success, with export sales to
India, Saudi Arabia,
South Korea,
Brazil and
Egypt, among other countries. Since 2014, MBDA UK also collaborated with
Japan to produce a Japanese Meteor-derived missile, known as JNAAM. During the same year, the company joined other leading British defence companies in Team Tempest, a consortium led by BAE Systems to develop the
BAE Systems Tempest fighter aircraft. The company's responsibilities are to provide advanced weapon systems, including the integration of
SPEAR 3 and Meteor missiles,
electronic warfare capabilities and an anti-ship cruise missile which is still in development. The company's sales to Saudi Arabia, particularly of Brimstone and Storm Shadow ground-attack missiles, received increased scrutiny following the
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen and Saudi Arabia's alleged
war crimes. The potential complicity of MBDA UK in these crimes became the subject of a 300-page report submitted to the
International Criminal Court by the
European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights in 2019. Following the
Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, MBDA UK supported the British government's efforts to supply Ukraine with military aid. The company's weapons donated to Ukraine include the Brimstone air-to-ground missile and the Storm Shadow cruise missile. The latter was described as a "game changer" by analysts as Ukraine had a deficiency in long-ranged weapons. The missiles had to be modified for integration on Ukraine's Soviet-sourced
Su-24 strike aircraft. This process took a matter of weeks, rather than years under normal circumstances. The missiles have been used extensively during the war, including in attacks against the Russian
Black Sea Fleet. Working with the UK MOD, MBDA UK also rapidly developed a surface-launched variant of its ASRAAM air-to-air missile to be used for air defence. It has a reported successful hit rate of 90%. ==Overview==