“Our country wanted to equip itself for deep strike with a successor to the unitary rocket launcher (LRU),” recalled the minister while inaugurating the Eurosatory defense and security exhibition, near Paris. “We are in phase, I am announcing to you this morning, of exclusive negotiations with a sovereign group made up of Safran and MBDA,” affirmed Catherine Vautrin.
Portée de 150 kilomètres
With this program, France intends to equip itself with an artillery system capable of striking with precision at 150 kilometers by 2030, when the range of the LRU, at the end of its life, does not exceed 80 kilometers.
Safran and MBDA are offering the Thundart, of which a first successful demonstration firing was carried out on April 14. Thales and Arianegroup also successfully carried out a first demonstration firing of their FLP-T 150 system (Long Range Land Strike) a few weeks later.
The rocket launcher is used to reach in depth the enemy’s system such as command posts, artillery, its ground-air defense or to “cut off logistical flows to slow down the adversary’s maneuver”, according to Michael Soulat, program manager at Safran Electronics & Defense. Paris intends to have 13, then 26 rocket launchers to replace its 9 LRUs.
/2026/06/14/6a2f1deba7808126968939.jpg "War in the Middle East: a peace agreement has been concluded between the United States and Iran, announce Donald Trump and the Pakistani mediator")
