MBDA
European guided-weapons maker owned by Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo.
On 30 September 2026 MBDA and Stark Defence said they plan to arm Stark's 12m robot boat with four Sea Venom anti-ship missiles and ten Cascade loitering munitions; both firms call the Sea Venom work early-stage.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026 · Appears in 2 active topics
Will a missile ever fly from Stark's uncrewed boat?
Timeline for MBDA
Agreed to integrate Sea Venom on the Stark USV
Autonomous Systems: Land & Sea: Stark and MBDA plan Sea Venom on a USVFrance and Germany define digital sovereignty
European Tech SovereigntyBackground
MBDA is Europe's principal guided-weapons maker, owned by BAE Systems (37.5%), Airbus (37.5%) and Leonardo (25%). Its range covers air-to-air missiles (Meteor), air-to-surface weapons (Storm Shadow, Brimstone) and surface-to-air systems (Aster, CAMM), in service across NATO forces. Its British Arm makes Sea Venom, a light anti-ship missile built for helicopters.
The plan announced with Stark Defence on 30 September 2026 would move Sea Venom from helicopters onto an uncrewed surface vessel, with autonomy testing at Nordic exercises through 2027. No missile has yet been fired from the hull. In June 2026 MBDA joined Tibi Phase 3, France's state-backed scheme steering institutional capital into deep tech, alongside SNCF, RATP, Naval Group and Eutelsat.
MBDA is one of the few European primes able to build precision-guided munitions at scale. As European defence budgets grew through 2026, demand for Meteor, Storm Shadow and CAMM made its assembly rate a constraint on national customers.
Reference
Where is MBDA based?
Is MBDA a European or British company?
Who owns MBDA and what missiles does it make?
Who owns MBDA?
Is MBDA really putting missiles on a robot boat?
Why did MBDA join Tibi Phase 3 in France?
