The French Armed Forces Ministry has ordered manufacturers involved in the production of Aster anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missiles to give priority to these orders over others, said the country's Minister of Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu on Monday in Calvi during a press conference with his Italian counterpart Guido Crozetto, UNN reports citing Le Monde.
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The Aster 15 and 30 missiles are manufactured by MBDA in cooperation between Paris and Rome. "Both countries have provided an unspecified number of these missiles to the Ukrainians for their air defense, who are asking for more to protect themselves. The missile has also been used in the Red Sea against drones fired by Houthi rebels," the newspaper writes.
According to a source close to the matter, "first of all, this obligation applies to the metallurgical Aubert et Duval, which produces special steels for civil aviation, as well as for submarines and Caesar gun barrels.
Lecorneau warned of the possibility of such a measure in late March so that manufacturers could produce more of these missiles and faster.
According to the company's president, Eric Beranger, MBDA intends to reduce the Aster's production time from 42 months in 2022 to "less than 18 months in 2026," and by then production should increase by 50%. However, the organization of production is not optimal: missile components have to "cross the Alps several times" during production, which does not contribute to the production ramp-up. According to Lecornu, there is also an "emergency situation for bureaucratic simplification" with "customs problems between France and Italy that could delay the production of missiles.
Lecorneuil and Crozetto also announced the signing of a letter of intent to merge the two countries' land armaments production, which should "give rise to a rapprochement on projects to equip our two land armies," according to the French minister. This approach frames the "strategic alliance" established in December between the Franco-German group KNDS and the Italian Leonardo.