MBDA expands German plant to build more missiles

MBDA is expanding its main German site at Schrobenhausen in Bavaria to about 100 hectares (247 acres) as it turns the plant into what it calls Germany’s “missile hub” for air defense and long-range strike weapons, MBDA Deutschland said in a post after a visit by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Oct. 29.

The company said the expansion adds new production areas for complex weapon systems and new manufacturing technology, so it can deliver deep precision strike and air defense weapons faster and in larger numbers. Schrobenhausen develops, builds, maintains and upgrades air defense systems, guided missiles and laser weapons for the Bundeswehr and NATO partners. MBDA did not say how much the expansion will cost, how many jobs it will add or when the new areas will be finished.

Pistorius stopped at Schrobenhausen as part of a day of visits to defense companies around Munich, which also included Airbus Defence and Space, drone maker Helsing and hypersonics startup Hypersonica, the German Defense Ministry said. Almost two years earlier, he had broken ground at the same site on a new production building for Patriot interceptors.

That building is at the center of the plant’s growth. COMLOG, a joint venture of MBDA Deutschland and Raytheon, is setting up Europe’s first production line for the Patriot PAC-2 GEM-T interceptor at Schrobenhausen, with a €250 million (about $280 million) investment covering a 31,000-square-meter (334,000-square-foot) production hall. The NATO Support and Procurement Agency has ordered up to 1,000 GEM-Ts from COMLOG for Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain, and Raytheon has said the plant will help fill a $3.7 billion order for Ukraine. Pistorius said in September that production of the newer PAC-3 MSE, which destroys incoming missiles by hitting them directly, is also set to begin at Schrobenhausen later this year.

On the strike side, MBDA is preparing series production of the Taurus Neo, an upgraded version of the Taurus KEPD 350 air-launched cruise missile developed with Sweden’s Saab, after signing a contract with Germany’s procurement agency at the end of 2025. Germany aims to buy about 600 Taurus Neo missiles for around €2 billion (about $2.23 billion), Reuters has reported, with production planned from 2029.

Schrobenhausen will also build the DefendAir anti-drone missile for Rheinmetall’s Skyranger 30 air defense vehicle under a contract signed in November 2025, and it hosts a final assembly line for Brimstone 3 precision strike missiles for German Eurofighters, the first outside the U.K. The plant also produces the Enforcer shoulder-fired missile.

MBDA doubled its missile production capacity across its European sites between 2023 and 2025 and plans to invest another €2.4 billion (about $2.68 billion) between 2025 and 2029 to raise output further.