Thales and ArianeGroup declared on Tuesday that they had in turn carried out a first test firing of their new long-range ballistic missile, a week after a similar announcement from the competing consortium. FLP-T (Long Range Land Strike) 150 test took place “successfully on May 5 on the Âle du Levant site” in the south-east of France, the two companies announced, promising to reveal the name of this ammunition at the Eurosatory international defense exhibition in June.
A European race
Last week, the French Safran and the European missile maker MBDA announced that they had successfully fired their Thundart rocket on April 14. The two solutions which can reach targets at 150 km and which must be operational by 2030 will compete with the American Himars systems which have proven their effectiveness in Ukraine.
To date, the French army has 9 LRU (unit rocket launchers), a modernized version of a system developed by the American Lockheed Martin capable of reaching targets at 70 kilometers, which must be replaced soon.
The French Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) launched a program in 2023 called Long Range Land Strike, which is being eyed by the two competing offers Thundart and FLP-T 150. A priori, only one will be selected. The two offers are presented as “sovereigns”resistant to jamming and “Itar free”that is to say designed without components or technologies subject to American arms export rules (Itar), in order to avoid any dependence and any restriction on use or transfer imposed by Washington.
“Based on the technologies that we are implementing to develop this munition, we will be able to develop a certain number of developments (…) up to a strategic munition” with a range of 2,500 km, declared Hervé Dammann, responsible for the land and air systems of Thales, emphasizing “the ability to deliver quickly and ramp up”.
Unique expertise in Europe
For Vincent Pery, director of defense programs at ArianeGroup, it is ballistic expertise “unique in Europe” of the company, designer and manufacturer of Ariane launchers, which makes the difference. The control system at the rear of the munition allows it to better control its trajectory and gives it increased precision, he added.
The long-term capacity to produce missiles capable of reaching 2,500 km constitutes a competitive advantage put forward by ArianeGroup, which refers to Emmanuel Macron’s recent speech having “outlined the principle of strikes in depth or very great depth which corresponds to ranges which go between 1,000 and 2,500 km”emphasized Vincent Pery.
