Delivering lethal effects at long range with highly accurate and highly expensive effectors is something already available; lessons learned from Ukraine have shown that the need for long range and accuracy remain, while what the west lacks is something that can be produced easily, at contained costs, to provide mass capacity to armed forces. The One-Way Effector is the MBDA answer to this requirement
“To manufacture this ammunition, we decided to go with a simple design and an innovative partnership, to manufacture the ammunition in large quantities. The design is very simple as well as the engineering,” Hugo Coqueret, business development manager, battlefield domain at MBDA told EDR On-Line.
“We reduced the number of ammunition components, we made them easier to install and assemble, and at the same time, we took into account that all support chains must be sovereign and secure,” he added. This allowed MBDA to establish an innovative partnership with an automotive industry, which name was not revealed, allowing a production capacity of 1,000 systems per month. As a term of comparison, the monthly production of the Mistral 3 is 40 missiles per month, the Mistral being on a much higher technological level compared to the One-Way Effector. Speeding up production is not enough, as mass requires also affordable price; the weapon simplicity also answers this requirement, according to MBDA. No price reference was provided: “It will be a tiny fraction of a cruise missile,” Hugo Coqueret said, the comparison being adequate as the One-Way Effector will have a range of 500 km, which outs it in the low-tier cruise missiles category.
Another cost-saving element is the warhead, which comes in the form of a 155 mm artillery grenade, something available at low cost. The One-Way Effector comes in the form of an aerodynamically-shaped fuselage with delta wings, with stabilising rudders at the tip, and it is powered by a jet engine, which air intake is on the rear top of the fuselage. At the Paris Air Show a 1:2 model wash exhibited, the real airframe being around 3 metres long, with a 3 metres wingspan, and a take-off mass of around 100 kg, around 40% being represented by the warhead.
The warhead mass is comparable to that of the Shahed 136, developed by Iran and now mass-produced in Russia as the as Geran-2. While the Shahed 136 has a much longer range compared to the new MBDA system, the latter will fly at a much higher speed, 400 km/h compared to 185 km/h, which considerably increases its survivability, especially against anti-air artillery, low speed having proved to be an Achilles heel of the Iran-designed loitering munition. Hitting an object flying at 3,000 ft altitude and 400 km/h is a challenge for many gun-based systems, while when flying at half the speed the risk to be hit is much higher, percentages of downed Shahed confirming this.
The One-Way Effector is launched on coordinates, navigation being provided by a GNSS receiver capable to operate on different satellite systems, GPS, Galileo and others, backed by an inertial platform, MBDA stating that the system is able to provide accurate navigation even in GNSS-denied scenarios.
The One-Way Effector is ground-launched; two systems are being developed, the simplest one being a ramp that allows it to reach a speed marginally higher than stall speed under the thrust of its own jet engine. The effector is delivered disassembled, and it is made ready to fly in a very short time, as the only operation needed is to install the wings. The second is a containerised solution, capable to host several effectors, therefore, to launch them in ripple, to saturate target defences; a booster might be needed to allow the airframe to reach the needed speed at launch.
The system planning tool allows to provide the single munition with target data as well as with waypoints that will bring it towards the objective; to add the mass effect and making interception difficult, planning can consider different routes that allow the One-Way Effectors to arrive together on the target area, MBDA clarifying that there is no connection between the effectors, something that would definitely add cost.
While the system was developed to answer a national requirement, MBDA is obviously also considering the export market, and EDR On-Line understood that the simplicity of the system might well be a plus when customers will require a high local content.
The first flight test of the One-Way Effector demonstrator is expected to take place in September 2025, which means 10 months after the programme was launched, in December 2024. “We aim at producing the first batch of One-Way Effectors in 2027, so it has been a very quick development carried out on company funds,” Hugo Coqueret concluded.
Photos by P. Valpolini