Rolls-Royce and Safran Partner to Develop Propulsion for Next Generation Cruise Missile made by MBDA

Farnborough, UK. 21 July 2022.  Rolls-Royce and Safran Power Units have jointly signed an Assessment Phase contract with MBDA, as part of the Franco-British Future Cruise / Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) programme.
Both partners will work collaboratively to mature a new propulsion solution for a subsonic, low
observable missile expected to be fielded before the end of the decade.

The agreement now means that Rolls-Royce and
Safran Power Units will work alongside MBDA to meet the propulsion requirements for the UK and
French Governments, with the intent to provide a game changing capability to overcome hardened
targets and air defence systems in increasingly contested battlespace environment.

Earlier the UK Ministry of Defence and the French Armament General Directorate (Direction
Générale de l’Armement -DGA) signed a bilateral agreement for the FC/ASW programme that will
see the joint development of a next generation of deep strike and heavy anti-ship missiles.

Éric Béranger, MBDA CEO, said: “FC/ASW is a strategic programme for the UK and France and
we are very pleased to welcome Rolls-Royce and Safran Power Units into the team. Their joint
expertise will prove fundamental to the success of the subsonic FC/ASW concept, further
strengthening the benefits of UK/French co-operation on this programme”.

Alex Zino, EVP Business Development and Future Programmes for Rolls-Royce Defence said:
“Combining the strengths of industry from across the UK and France underlines the significance of
this programme. With this collaboration, both companies will be able to demonstrate the strong
alignment between the UK and French industry and can effectively work together to provide the
power to protect our armed forces and our societies”.

Ghislaine Doukhan, CEO Safran Power Units said: “We are proud to join the FC/ASW programme
which further reinforces the strategic collaboration in this domain between the UK and France
which began in the early 90s with the successful development of the SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow
cruise missile engine. Safran Power Units brings to the team more than 60 years experience in the
development and manufacturing of advanced propulsion systems for missiles such as MBDA
Scalp, Exocet and MdCN (missile de croisière naval- naval cruise missile)”.

Rolls-Royce has a long history of working alongside French industry, including work alongside
Safran, the Adour co-operation started in 1965 being the longest-running aerospace collaboration.