France, which chose domestic Thundart missile system for its military, plans to test its prototype in Ukraine — this will enable MBDA and Safran, developers of this system and missile for it, to receive best possible feedback to identify all possible deficiencies and teething problems of their new missile system, and also obtain battle-proven weapons sample designation for its further export promotion.
About probability of sending Thundart prototype to Ukraine, French Aid to Europe account on X social network (formerly Twitter) writes citing own anonymous sources. Officially such information is not yet confirmed, also unknown how quickly Defense Forces may receive this missile system for testing.
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Recall France officially chose Thundart missile system from MBDA and Safran quite recently — slightly over a month ago in mid-June, country's defense department head Catherine Vautrin at Eurosatory exhibition officially announced that specifically Thundart will replace American M270 LRU missile system in French military, beating both foreign samples (Pinaka from India and K239 Chunmoo from South Korea) and domestic competing FLP-T 150 system.
Thundart missile system feature, and primarily same-name missile for it, is that it is created from Ukraine-tested components — guidance kit taken from AASM Hammer aviation bomb, with which Armed Forces Air Force strikes rashists, and engine will be supplied by Roxel company, whose products can be encountered on weapons samples like MICA, Aster 30, Mistral and GMLRS.
Against backdrop of news that Ukraine may receive French missile system prototype for testing, recall we previously assumed possibility of localizing Thundart missiles for this system in Ukraine given Ukraine received license for producing AASM Hammer precision long-range guided bombs from Safran.
However in this context very important to also mention following nuance — even before final missile system choice, France determined quite modest plan regarding launcher and missile quantity — this involves overall 13-26 vehicles and 300 Thundart missiles through 2030, meaning average delivery rate of 75 missiles annually provided deliveries begin next year.
On one hand, this involves order purely for French armed forces, on other — this is still small missile quantity, and accordingly question arises whether Ukraine will receive sufficient Thundart missile quantity for conducting full combat tests. Recall Thundart launcher is designed for eight missiles, meaning 300 missiles is 37 and a half salvos, which is quite few. Especially under real combat conditions.
Therefore France may indeed be interested in obtaining battle-proven designation for its new missile system as quickly as possible and actively seeking customers to have possibility to scale production sooner.
Despite Thundart having many market competitors — with same American HIMARS, analog of which this system is, MBDA and Safran product already interested Belgium, French MLRS may also quite interest Spain.
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