European missile-maker MBDA opens first industrial facility in Poland

WARSAW — European defense giant MBDA has opened its first industrial facility in Poland, meant to act as a “service and technology center” for the company’s operations in the Eastern European nation, especially for the PILICA+ air defense program.

“As we further strengthen our partnership with Poland, our brand new facility will offer wide ranging employment opportunities for Poles, including engineers. It will also allow them to work on cutting edge European complex weapons technology,“ MBDA CEO Eric Beranger said in a company press release. “This new site will not only serve as a service centre but as a hub of technical innovation, that helps to ensure top-tier engineering talent is developed and maintained in Poland.”

A ceremony to open the center on Monday was attended by senior Polish, British, Italian and French officials.

UK Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard said, “At a time when Europe faces its most serious security challenges for generations, the opening of MBDA’s new site demonstrates that the relationship between our two nations has never been more important. Stronger Polish air defences means stronger NATO air defences, and that work is taking place while also backing jobs in both nations.”

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The facility is comprised of two buidings in Czosnow, less than 20 miles northwest of Warsaw. One is 900 square meters, and the other is about 3,000 square meters, including office space, laboratory facilities, as well as a warehouse and a storage hall adapted for the PILICA launcher, according to Malgorzata Kobylarczyk, MBDA Poland’s general manager. The facility is designed to handle multiple launchers at the same time and to have all the necessary spare parts for servicing.

“Currently, 11 people from the Polish team are employed there, exclusively from the Polish team. The team will expand in late 2026 and early 2027, primarily by adding engineering and technical support to support all tasks and to ensure that the specialists and technicians from the UK responsible for the launcher can travel and have a suitable place to work,” Kobylarczyk said at the ceremony.

MBDA calls PILICA+ “one of the largest European short-range defence acquisition programmes in NATO.” It’s designed to function as the “inner tier of a highly capable and integrated Polish air defense network that also includes the upper-tier WILSA system and the mid-tier NAREW system.”

Last November the first production of PILICA systems was handed over to the Polish Army at the 34th Air Defense Missile Squadron in Bytom. The delivered system is the first of 16 to be delivered to the Army under an agreement between the MND’s Armament Agency and the PGZ-PILICA+ consortium.

The basic PILICA system, on which the enhanced PILICA+ variant is based, integrates a command post, a target acquisition radar, six fire units with twin 23mm cannons and Piorun missiles, and support vehicles. The advanced version adds iLauncher launchers with CAMM missiles, a new generation of the Zenit-MP+ automated command system, and the Bystra mobile radar station.