At the Paris Air Show Safran Electronics & Defense (SED) and MBDA provided further details on their Thundart rocket, which aims at becoming the core of the future French Army multiple rocket launcher, to be developed as part of the FLP-T (Frappe Longue Portée Terrestre, for Long Range Land Strike)
With its ageing MLRS fleet set to be retired around 2027, the French Army launched the FLP-T programme in July 2023. At Eurosatory 2024 some information were provided by MBDA, although the real green light to the project was given in October 2024, when MBDA and SED officially joined forces for the development of the new multiple rocket launcher and firstly its munition.
The FLP-T programme aims to field a tactical effector, with a 150 km range, which is financed within the French Military Programming Act 2024-2030 (LPM 2024-2030), and an effector at operational level, with a 500 km range, which is not part of that document, and should therefore be present in the next five-year plan.
The two companies started operating in October 2024, MBDA bringing its expertise in propulsion, through Roxel, which became an MBDA company following the acquisition of Safran shares in December 2024, and warheads, while SED is responsible for guidance.
The French Army requirement calls for a national solution at reasonable cost, which will allow saturation fire missions. To do so the guidance system is an adaptation of that of the ASSM Hammer, the kit developed by SED to be installed on Mk82 and Mk84 dumb aerial bombs. The guidance element is available in three different models, INS/GPS, INS/GPS IR, and INS/GPS Laser; for the Thundart the INS/GPS is the one that is being adapted to the new rocket, although at Eurosatory EDR On-Line was told that the addition of a seeker might be considered as part of a further development roadmap. This considerably reduces risks and non-recurrent costs. According to SED results obtained by AASM in operational theatres have shown metric accuracy even with intensive jamming along most of the trajectory.
Although reusing some former developments, both the engine and warhead will be new. Roxel is working on a wholly new thruster; however, in the past years the company manufactured solid-propellant rocket motors for European GMLRS, the Guided MLRS version in use with the MLRS and HIMARS systems. This gives the MBDA subsidiary the know-how and experience to develop the new motor for the longer-range rocket. As for the warhead, here too MBDA will leverage developments done in the past years, for example MBDA proposed a new warhead for the GMLRS that didn’t went into production. No details were provided, as the issue is still open, several options being on the table.
Of course, no price tag was provided, however the two companies said that the aim is to have a rocket with a cost similar to that of an M31 GMLRS round, a remarkable challenge considering that the US-made guided rocket has been mass produced for years and that its range is less than half that of the Thundart, 70 km.
This will be frozen in October 2025, when the current development phase will end. The initial design phase includes all elements, platform, launcher, canister, effector, and support. EDR On-Line understood that the system platform will be an 8×8 high mobility truck; according to information obtained at Eurosatory the launcher should host up to six canisters, one truck carrying to launchers for a total of 12 Thundart rockets, the equivalent of an MLRS and twice that of a HIMARS. Among requirements we find air mobility on board an A400M Atlas transport aircraft.
The next phase of the programme will bring to a prototype, which first firings should take place in April 2026, definitely a tight scheduling. At this point the French Army will select the preferred bidder; EDR On-Line understands that two other competitors are working on the FLP-T programme, Turgis and Gaillard, which unveiled its Foudre MRL at Le Bourget, and Thales with ArianeGroup, Thales not providing details on its solution for the time being.
Deliveries should start in early 2030, EDR On-Line understanding that a first batch of 13 systems should be made available within that same year, the actual Army requirement being for 26 systems.
The issue of covering the gap between the potential retirement of the current MLRS and the deployment of the FLP-T is being considered. Reducing the development time by over two years seems impossible, “as long as we maintain the same requirements,” we were told; for example, the Army might initially skip the air mobility issue, to accelerate development. Another option may be to renounce initially to a full sovereign solution, although the end state will definitely be an all-French solution, the Thundart team having already secured a national supply chain.
Another issue is flexibility; most recently developed MLR systems are capable to launch different types of effectors. As said, a 500 km rocket is envisaged by the French Army. “This is not the subject of this development, but nonetheless we are trying not to make decisions that would make this path impossible. But we’re not currently working on it,” EDR On-Line understanding that shortening development time is currently the priority. At Eurosatory we understood that an interface to allow using the Thundart on foreign MRLs, such as US or Israeli, is also being considered, a flexibility that would ease export.
Photos by P. Valpolini