France is debating a major defense spending boost in Parliament—and one of Europe’s biggest missile makers, MBDA, is emerging as a central character in the political and industrial tug-of-war over how to pay for it.
The June 2026 edition of Air&Défense, a weekly show produced by BFM Business with La Tribune and Air&Cosmos, focuses on MBDA as France updates its 2024–2030 military planning law. The show’s recurring theme in recent months: France is rearming, but the financing still lacks a clear, settled answer.
MBDA—owned by Airbus, BAE Systems, and Leonardo—sits at the crossroads of France’s and Europe’s defense industrial base, known in France as the BITD (roughly, the national defense industrial and technology ecosystem).
$38.9 billion more for defense—and lingering questions about how to fund it
The updated version of France’s 2024–2030 Military Programming Law (LPM) is currently moving through the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. The stated goal is to free up an additional €36 billion (about $38.9 billion) by 2030 to strengthen the armed forces budget.
Air and space spending takes a significant place in the plan, but people close to the file say the funding question remains unresolved. On April 17, Alice Rufo, France’s junior minister attached to the minister of the armed forces, came on Air&Défense to address those concerns directly.
The show framed the debate in blunt terms: Is it enough for France to keep its standing as a military power? Is it suited to the conflicts underway in Ukraine and the Middle East? Those questions, the program suggested, capture the anxiety running through the sector.
Safran and MBDA said to win France’s long-range land-strike contest
As lawmakers argue over budgets, an industrial competition has delivered a result. According to La Tribune, Safran and MBDA have won France’s long-range land-strike contract, beating a Thales–ArianeGroup team.
The deal is described as the most anticipated defense contract in France right now because it is meant to replace the current LRU systems—France’s unitary rocket launchers—whose withdrawal from service is scheduled to begin in 2027.
The outcome follows earlier momentum for “Thundart,” a munition developed jointly by Safran and MBDA. Thales and ArianeGroup, for their part, carried out the first firing of their FLP-t 150 ballistic munition on May 5 from the Île du Levant test site run by the French defense procurement and test agency, the DGA (Direction générale de l’armement), at its missile test center. The two-team rivalry animated the preceding months, ending—according to La Tribune—in Safran and MBDA’s favor.
A private-capital argument enters France’s defense industry debate
On March 27, Air&Défense highlighted a less typical voice in French defense discussions: Serge Weinberg, whose firm Weinberg Capital Partners invests in France’s defense sector. His case was straightforward: private capital has a role in supporting the BITD, especially small and mid-size defense companies, rather than waiting for public budgets alone to do the job.
The updated LPM, the show argued, makes that position easier to understand because the financing for the additional €36 billion (about $38.9 billion) is not fully mapped out. Weinberg’s view also cuts against the traditional model of a sector long accustomed to heavy state support. He argued defense industry can attract investors if it organizes to do so—provided the regulatory and contracting framework keeps pace.
A weekly show that has become a hub for France’s defense and space arguments
The format of Air&Défense is simple: BFM Business produces and broadcasts; La Tribune and Air&Cosmos provide editorial expertise. Léo Barnier, editor-in-chief of Air&Cosmos, leads the analysis of episodes available as a podcast and on YouTube.
Recent episodes show the range. On March 20, Arianespace’s David Cavaillolès discussed how Ariane 6 could hold its own against SpaceX, following the first successful flight of the heavy Ariane 64 variant on February 12, 2026. On May 8, Géraldine Naja, ESA’s director of space transportation, said Ariane 6 had at least 10 years of operations ahead. And on April 10, the show returned to the air and space portion of the new military budget with Rufo.
Within that lineup, the MBDA thread reflects how European missile manufacturing—spanning export contracts, national programs, and NATO orders—has drawn a level of attention few other industrial segments are getting right now.
Future Combat Air System on hold, but France says it can still build fighters
Patrick Pailloux, France’s top armaments official as the DGA’s delegate general for armament, recently said he regretted the halt of FCAS (SCAF in French), the Future Combat Air System program led by Berlin, Madrid, and Paris. He did not, however, signal alarm about France’s ability to produce combat aircraft, pointing to Dassault Aviation, Safran, and Thales as an industrial base capable of building a fighter without relying on a multinational program.
That is the through line Air&Défense returns to week after week: France has the industrial tools, but the budget and industrial decisions that will determine their strength five years from now are being made now.
