Europe’s Biggest Missile Maker MDBA Goes on a Spending Splurge

Europe’s biggest missile maker plans to spend as much as €2.5 billion ($2.7 billion) in the next five years to lift production and will go on a hiring spree as the region refocuses on supporting local arms providers amid increasingly fraught trans-Atlantic relations.

MBDA Missile Systems, a venture between France’s Airbus SE, BAE Systems Plc from the UK and Leonardo SpA of Italy, plans to bolster its workforce to 19,000 in 2025 by adding 2,600 employees, Chief Executive Office Eric Beranger said at a press conference in Paris on Monday. The company boasts an order backlog of €37 billion after the intake reached an all-time high of €13.4 billion last year, he said.