Missile Defense Agency honoured MBDA for its SAMP/T work 41610154

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Missile Defense Agency honoured MBDA and Thales for their SAMP/T work
The United States Missile Defense Agency has presented MBDA and Thales with the “Technology Pioneer Award” for their work on the SAMP/T project. The French and Italian teams that developed the air defence system received the award during the annual Multinational Ballistic Missile Defense Conference, on 6 October.
     
Missile Defense Agency honoured MBDA for its SAMP:Twork
The Aster 30 missile during its launch from the SAMP/T system (Source: MBDA)
     

The prize is in recognition of the successful fire tests on 6 March 2013, of the Aster 30 Block 1 missile, against a target simulating SCUD-B tactical ballistic missile. The successful shot down of the target has been in conjunction with NATO’s chain of command. It proved the system’s interoperability with the Alliance’s command echelons through the use of Link 16. This allows SAMP/T to be integrated into joint forces and inter-allied operations.

The firing was carried out at the DGA’s missile testing centre in Biscarrosse, jointly with the Italian 4th artillery regiment from Mantua and the French Air Warfare Centre (CEAM) at Mont-de-Marsan. It mobilized considerable resources from several DGA and NATO centres, as well as a US Aegis frigate.

The main strengths of the SAMP/T are its 360° area defence and its ability to simultaneously engage all types of short-range ballistic and conventional air targets. Developed and manufactured by Thales and MBDA through the Eurosam consortium, as a Franco-Italian cooperation, the SAMP/T system is in service in both countries, and is a key part of their contribution to NATO’s ballistic missile defence programme.