The UAE Navy has awarded a contract to MBDA, a world leader in missile systems, to supply additional Marte MK2/N anti-ship missiles, the company announced at the International Defence Exhibition, Idex 2017 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

This is a follow on from an initial contract signed in February 2009 for the supply of Marte missiles.

Available with a variety of launcher configurations, Marte MK 2/N are able to strike targets at ranges in excess of 30 km, flying a fire-and-forget sea-skimming profile using mid-course inertial guidance and active radar homing, said MBDA, which is owned jointly by Airbus Group (37.5 per cent), BAE Systems(37.5 per cent) and Leonardo (25 per cent)..

"MBDA is one of the country’s leading defence suppliers and will continue to show our long-standing commitment and support for the UAE Armed Forces,” said Antoine Bouvier, CEO of MBDA, in a press statement.

"This new contract reaffirms MBDA pre-eminence in the anti-ship sector and is clear proof of the technology leadership of the Marte missile family that, over the years, has continued to be competitive and able to respond to increasing customer requirements, thanks to its modular design," said Pasquale Di Bartolomeo, MBDA’s executive group director Strategy and managing director of MBDA Italia.

With a significant presence in five European countries and the US, in 2015, MBDA achieved a turnover of 2.9 billion Euros ($3.06billion) with an order book of 15.1 billion Euros.

With more than 90 armed forces customers in the world, MBDA is the only European group capable of designing and producing missiles and missile systems that correspond to the full range of current and future operational needs of the three armed forces of land, sea and air.

In total, the group offers a range of 45 missile systems and countermeasure products already in operational service and more than 15 others are currently in development. – TradeArabia News Service