France Will Order MdCN Mk2 Naval Cruise Missiles From MBDA Instead of a Mid-Life Upgrade — Deliveries From 2030
Paris, 6 November 2026
Key points
- France's armament directorate (DGA) announced at Euronaval that it will shortly sign a contract with MBDA for new naval cruise missiles, the MdCN Mk2, with deliveries beginning in 2030; the DGA gave no value or quantity
- The DGA lists better stealth, greater resistance to satellite-navigation jamming, a range above 1,000 km, and mission planning improved with artificial-intelligence building blocks developed by MBDA
- The Mk2 is for land-attack missions from FREMM multi-mission frigates and Suffren-class nuclear attack submarines
- The 2027 budget annex for the equipment programme, as quoted by Opex360, records that the mid-life upgrade of the existing missile was dropped "in favour of an order for new munitions" and records an investment of about EUR 1.3 billion on the MdCN programme
France will buy new naval cruise missiles rather than refurbish the ones it has, and has named the same two ship types that carry the current missile as the ones that will carry the new one.
The DGA describes the Mk2 as suited to destroying infrastructure of high strategic value, fired openly from a frigate or covertly from a submarine, and as complementary to the air-launched SCALP-EG; the European deep-strike tracker carries it as announced, not signed. The annex says the upgrade was meant to sustain deep-strike capability from naval platforms, and that its funding has been moved to the MdCN programme itself. In 2024 the DGA had awarded MBDA an EUR 11.3 million study for that upgrade, Opex360 reports. The outlet also puts the original target at 250 missiles, cut to 150, 50 of them for submarines, after France reduced its FREMM fleet to eight, two of them air-defence ships without the missile.
The order buys new rounds, in a number not announced, and adds no launchers. Signal No. 184 carried the announcement; the DGA's own text lists two launch platforms, the FREMM and the Suffren class. France's five FDI frigates were designed to fire the missile but are not to be equipped with it for now, Opex360 reports. The Mk2 extends what each French launcher can reach and how well its missile survives defences on the way in, and its funding comes from a programme line that was meant to keep the old missile in service. It leaves the number of ships that can fire one where it is.
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