European missile maker MBDA says it will open a large new mechanical-production facility in France’s Loiret department, a project aimed at easing capacity constraints as demand for missiles surges across Europe.
The company announced June 11 that it is acquiring a 40-hectare (about 99-acre) industrial site in a municipality within the Orléans metro area, though it has not yet disclosed the town’s name. MBDA said the new plant is designed to complement—not replace—its existing French sites, which are already running at full tilt.
The land footprint is roughly double the size of MBDA’s Bourges-Aéroport site, the group’s main missile production hub in France, where it employs 2,500 people.
A two-step launch: rented space in 2027, full plant by 2030
MBDA plans to begin production before the permanent factory is completed. The company expects to rent buildings adjacent to the site it is acquiring in order to bring a “first operational industrial capacity” online in 2027.
Regional newspaper La République du Centre reported that the rented facilities could be those of former wind-turbine manufacturer Vergnet, which was placed into court-ordered liquidation in February. MBDA did not comment on that report.
The phased approach—rent first, build later—signals how urgent the industrial ramp-up has become. Missile demand has jumped amid Europe’s rearmament drive and needs linked to ongoing conflicts. MBDA, formed from the merger of missile businesses from Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo, is seeking to accelerate output without waiting for a new factory to be built.
MBDA expects to hire a few dozen people starting in 2027 during the rental phase. The permanent facility is slated to be fully operational in 2030 and could employ several hundred people, depending on demand.
Existing sites stay in place as Loiret takes on mechanical production
MBDA says the new Loiret unit will absorb the overflow of mechanical production that its current facilities can no longer handle.
The Bourges-Aéroport site will keep its 2,500 employees, and MBDA’s Selles-Saint-Denis site in the neighboring Loir-et-Cher department will maintain its workforce of 300 people dedicated to final missile assembly in the Sologne area.
Why MBDA picked the Orléans area
MBDA described the Orléans metro area as a “dynamic employment basin” that is “ideally located.” Beyond the marketing language, the geography matters: Loiret sits between Bourges and MBDA’s headquarters in Le Plessis-Robinson, outside Paris, which the company says helps logistics and management mobility between sites.
For the local economy, the hiring timeline is central. A few dozen jobs in 2027 would be an early boost in an area where manufacturing has been trying to rebuild headcount. A ramp-up to several hundred jobs by 2030 would make the project one of the region’s more significant industrial investments over that period.
MBDA has not disclosed the cost of the project, and the land acquisition is still in progress. The 40-hectare (about 99-acre) size signals the scale of the plan. By comparison, the Bourges-Aéroport site—whose footprint this new facility is meant to match in added capacity—hosts the Exocet program and the group’s major production lines in France.
Europe’s missile crunch is turning factory capacity into the bottleneck
The Loiret project fits into a broader shift in Europe’s defense industry. MBDA describes itself as the only European missile maker with a full range of products, from anti-tank weapons to cruise missiles. With the war in Ukraine and wider European rearmament, the company’s order books have reached unprecedented levels, and production capacity has become the limiting factor—ahead of technology or financing.
MBDA has set a goal in recent years of increasing missile production sixfold at the European level, a target that requires large, coordinated industrial investment. The Loiret factory is one of the most visible French examples of that push so far.
Under the plan, Bourges will continue to concentrate the most sensitive technologies, while the Loiret site will focus on mechanical production—high-volume work that is less confidential but essential to increasing output. Without that added capacity, MBDA’s ambition to scale production would remain out of reach.
