MBDA’s pyrotechnic integration facility for missile defence is state-of-the-art

By Sangeeta Saxena

Selles-Saint-Denis/ New Delhi. 13 December 2023. It was the second leg of MBDA’s press tour of the Indian media and we were at Joan of Arc’s historic city of Orlean which also houses, nestled amidst dense forest of Selles-Saint-Denis, a MBDA facility which is the site for pyrotechnic integration in France.

 Originally acquired by French businessman Sylvain Floirat as a hunting reserve in the 1960s, in 1979 the then CEO of Matra – Jean-Luc Lagardère – decided to use the site for integration of live missiles. And since this facility has been of prime importance for European missile defence. As one enters the building what catches the eyeballs first are the displays of all the missiles being integrated here.

Selle-Saint-Denise is the smallest site of MBDA in France in terms of work force with 300 people, but it is the biggest in terms of industrial footprint, with more than 5 million square meters for the factory and about 40,000 square meters of buildings. It is really important for them to have enough place for their activity, due to the risk related to the pyrotechnical activity and regarding safety distances in particular. So that’s why this factory is in the middle of the forest, far away from civilization, far away from towns and cities, and only a few houses are located around, those too at considerable distance. The facility here hosts the missile production directorate. The missions of this directorate are to not only produce new missiles for customers, but also to repair, to refurbish or to renew old missiles. Every year they have a lot of in-service missiles which come back in the factory to be inspected or renewed. And renovation and inspection activities are more than 50% of the activities.

For the uninitiated pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating such things as fireworks, safety matches, oxygen candles, explosive bolts and other fasteners, parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, quarrying, and demolition.Critical parts of the systems in its product family can be developed by MBDA. Among these parts, MBDA engineers are creating highly reliable and high-quality pyrotechnic systems. Exploding bolts, pin pushers/retracters, pyrotechnic valves, separation devices, and cable/rope cutters are examples of pyrotechnic actuated devices that are used in launch systems, emergency systems, disconnection/release systems, and space applications for various applications. The new generation of detonators includes explosive foil initiator, which are activated by high voltages for added safety. MBDA is responsible for the design, development, and serial manufacturing of these products.

And this directorate also produces most pyrotechnic equipment that are integrated inside the missiles. So it is about 700 new missiles produced every year, and quite the same amount in maintenance or renovation every year. And more than 40 factory acceptance tests also with customers here on the site, in order to test and to check every batch of production. It is absolutely an eye opener for the media group visiting to see how a facility can have such high tech work done flawlessly with perfectly skilled manpower for the job in hand. Every step of production is controlled and tested. In terms of safety, of course, they make a test before to assemble the pyrotechnic elements, in order to be sure there is no problem, no risk. And it’s also easier to produce, because if they detect a problem with pyro, it’s more difficult and longer to dismount pyro in order to correct the problem, to fix the problem. So it’s really important to test every step of assembly. Also there is a team working on the whole range of antennas, beginning with studies, tests and also production of every type of antenna.

The question which pops up in the mind is what do they do with waste product? How do you get rid of it? So we burn the pyrotechnic and there are filters for the smoke. And all materials are then recycled for metals and so on. There are two – three robots and this device has been designed to cut the missiles and pyrotechnic blocks in small parts, in small blocks, in order to burn it easily and with less risks. Big missiles with big propellant blocks are cut in two, three or four parts in order to be burned.

Another activity of the facility is to produce small pyrotechnic equipment like injection actuators, igniters and pyrotechnic doors, which are later integrated in the missiles or missile launcher. The facility produces for the MICA family the gas missile launcher and air launch, with both types of seeker, infrared and electromagnetic. They produce the Mistral for the short-range air defence, Storm Shadow and Scalp for long-range ammunition, Aster family, air-to-ground and naval launch. They also produce the Exocet in all versions, air-launched, surface-launched and  submarine-launched. For an already existing market it also produces the Acheron family.

The factory also produces GPS antennas and Delta-link antennas and has all competencies regarding this activity with specific facilities like test benches, for example, for materials, in order to test compatibility of materials and electromagnetic radiations and also test facilities like an anechoic chamber. And also it has another range in order to make tests in light, with the environment, mock-ups and different sizes of mock-ups.

MBDA has committed to its own internal “Journey to 2020” challenge which has set the company targets on improving it’s use of renewable energy, energy consumption and emissions, recycling, pollution reduction, better waste management and the reduction of  it’s carbon footprint. The policy is being followed here at Selle-Saint-Denise site too. It also has to keep the bio-diversity of the forest intact and safe.

MBDA’s is the biggest missile making manufacturer in size and numbers with  sites at Cazaux, Bourges, Selles Saint-Denis, La-Croix-Saint-Ouen, and Le Plessis-Robinson in France, at La Spezia, Fusaro, and Rome in Italy, at Aschau am Inn, Schrobenhausen, and Ulm in Germany, at Madrid in Spain, at London, Stevenage, Bristol, and Bolton in the United Kingdom, at Brussels in Belgium, at Warsaw in Poland, at Virginia and Alabama in the United States, with offices at New Delhi in India, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Doha in Qatar and Abu-Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It is a huge expansive list not to forget the Joint Ventures between MBDA and private sector manufacturers like Larsen & Toubro and Bharat Dynamics Limited in India.

ADU shall keep getting you the reports from it’s recent press tour of  MBDA facilities at UK & France. Happy reading!