The French Air Pressure, in collaboration with the French defence procurement company (DGA), has efficiently launched two MICA IR missiles concentrating on balloons positioned at altitudes surpassing 20km.
The operation aligns with France’s strategic deal with ‘very excessive altitude’ defence, an idea outlined by Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu in the course of the 2025 Paris Air Present.
This particular zone refers back to the airspace starting from 20km to 100km above Earth’s floor.
Throughout the exams that befell on 23 June, MICA IR missiles had been fired from a Rafale and a Mirage 2000.
The exams had been performed on the Cazaux air base, with contributions from the French House Company CNES, Dassault Aviation, and MBDA.
The firings demonstrated the potential for countering rising threats in what is taken into account an more and more contested area of warfare.
Army operations inside this layer present a protect in opposition to threats originating from that house and function a vantage level for motion, mentioned MBDA.
The corporate famous that the environment’s higher layers have gotten crowded with espionage and surveillance applied sciences, together with high-endurance balloons and drones, in addition to hypersonic weapon techniques that pose vital challenges to current air defence mechanisms.
MBDA’s crew has leveraged their understanding of threats and their command over piloting, steering and navigation techniques to beat technological hurdles and obtain engagements at altitudes over 20km.
The corporate is creating options to counteract hypersonic threats at “very” excessive altitudes.
The Aster 30 B1 missile, a product of Franco-Italian cooperation and already combat-tested, supplies an preliminary layer of defence in opposition to sure hypersonic risks.
Moreover, MBDA is engaged on a sophisticated iteration of the missile, the Aster B1 New Know-how (B1NT), which is designed for extra superior threats, starting from extremely agile targets to stylish hypersonic weapons.
In October 2024, the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation introduced the first successful firing of the Aster 30 B1NT missile at a testing website in France.
This next-generation missile will likely be built-in into the upcoming SAMP/T NG land-based air defence system at present beneath improvement for each Italian and French navy forces.
Moreover, beneath the European HYDIS challenge, MBDA is engineering an endo-atmospheric interceptor aimed toward defending giant areas from new hypersonic and ballistic threats by partaking them straight at very excessive altitudes.
This initiative is scheduled to be operational from 2035.
