MBDA CEO Antoine Bouvier yesterday laid the first stone of France’s future demilitarization facility, to be built at the company’s Bourges Subdray site, with military and civil authorities present at the event.
Before the end of 2013, this facility will become operational at which point it will be capable of dismantling annually 2,500 tons of various types of sensitive munitions, notably missiles, the company said in a statement. It will permit the maximum recuperation of waste products that will be sorted, re-used or recycled in full accordance with French and European standards. Only those waste elements comprising energetic material will be incinerated in the thermic treatment unit.
This new complex weapons demilitarization capability will allow MBDA to extend its portfolio of activities and to offer to its military customer base the full life-cycle management of their products from conception through to destruction.
Approximately $15 million is being invested in the work, which should create about 20 direct jobs at the Bourges Subdray site.
Bouvier said, “In championing Europe’s missile sector and as a world leader, MBDA is committed to creating firm and lasting partnerships with its domestic and export customers. These customers are not only looking for guaranteed security of supply and support for their equipment, they are also recognizing more and more the need to ensure the necessary safe treatment of their complex weapons at the end of their service life. With this new industrial installation we are showing our desire to further reinforce the partner relationship that we have with our military customers.”
In constructing this facility, MBDA is responding to France’s desire to establish an industrial capability for dismantling munitions at the end of their life and for this to be done on national territory to guarantee the protection of its product confidentiality, and always linked with safety and environmental norms.
This commitment was underlined in a contract calling for the destruction of 36,000 complex munitions between now and 2017, a contract that was won by MBDA in November 2011 following a tender issued by the NATO Supply Procurement Agency at the request of the French Ministry of Defense.
BAE Systems and EADS jointly hold 37.5 percent of MBDA, while Finmeccanica holds 25 percent.