The announcement was made on April 15 by the general delegate for armaments, Patrick Pailloux, during a hearing at the National Assembly. As part of the development of the European project ELSA for a land-based ballistic missile system (MBT) with conventional capability, for which the 2024-30 Military Programming Law update project provides a budget of 1.1 billion euros, the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) is considering associating it with the hypersonic glider V-MAX (Experimental Maneuvering Vehicle), as reported by the Zone Militaire Opex 360 website.
The stated goal is to develop conventional strike capabilities in depth. “We have identified what we want to do in technological terms, namely a ballistic missile equipped with a maneuvering hypersonic glider. Our calculations, in the mathematical sense of the term, show us that this is probably the best cost/performance military ratio,” highlighted Patrick Pailloux. However, he implied that nothing is finalized yet as discussions are still ongoing with European partners to “see if we can build something together.”
Responding to adversarial technological advances
Modifications are still possible. The European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA) is a cooperation agreement between France, Germany, Italy, and Poland, later joined by the United Kingdom and Sweden. This project mentioned by DGA aims to respond to other powers like the United States, China, Russia, and India, that already have such military capabilities. “Germany, the United Kingdom, and France, under our ELSA initiative, will work together on very long-range missile projects,” stated Emmanuel Macron at the beginning of March.
The president emphasized the need to have “new options to conventionally manage escalation, at a time when adversaries deploy new technologies and armaments.” Furthermore, the report attached to the update project of the Military Programming Law specifies that studies are underway to have “a land-based conventional ballistic missile with a range of 2,500 km by the end of the next decade,” with potential cooperation with Germany and the United Kingdom.
An intercept-proof system?
The V-MAX has already had a first flight of “several hundred kilometers,” as recalled by Opex 360, allowing to “verify the structural integrity and proper functioning of equipment and on-board experiments.” Coupling a ballistic missile with a glider would mainly provide an aircraft on an invisible trajectory, highlighted by L’Indépendant. The V-MAX can indeed change its route at speeds exceeding 6,000 km/h, making it nearly impossible to intercept by anti-missile systems. A second flight is scheduled to take place soon.
