MBDA’s Scalp Cruise Missiles for French Navy
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On December 29, 2006, MBDA has received a development and production contract from the French DGA(Delegation Generale pour l’Armement) defence procurement agency for 250 SCALP Naval land attack missiles. Scalp Naval/ MdCN cruise missiles are longer-range variants of the stealthy, air-launched Storm Shadow, with an expected reach of over 1,000 km/ 540 nautical miles. They are slated to equip the French Navy’s FREMM multi-mission frigates (200 missiles) and new SSN Barracuda Class submarines (50 missiles). The value of the contract is EUR 910 million (currently about $1.2 billion).
MBDA is jointly owned by BAE Systems (37.5%), EADS (37.5%) and Finmeccanica (25%). SCALP Naval production will be carried out in Selles Saint Denis, MBDA’s central region site in France. The contract is made up of 4 tranches, with the first tranche coming into force with this notification, and covering the delivery of 50 missiles for the FREMM frigates in 2013.
N.B. The land attack version of FREMM was shelved, but some French ships will carry the required Sylver A70 launchers.
